rTirPTTTi  PO      A  TU"T\      L  OO  A  T7"O 

jECTURES  AND  jSSAYS, 


BY 


REV.  W.  J.  SCOTT, 


OF    THE     NORTH    GEORGIA    CONFERENCE. 


C'OPYRIGHT  SECURED. 


CONSTITUTION  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 
ATLANTA,   GA. 


INSCRIBED   TO 

EDNA,  WILLIE,  WALTER,  ALICE. 


PREFACE. 


A  few  explanatory  statements  will  suffice  for  a  Proem 
to  this  small  volume.  In  its  preparation  I  have  sought 
to  utilize  some  of  my  literary  »work  which  has  already 
received  the  recognition  of  "print  and  pay"  in  the  South- 
ern Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  under  the  distinguished 
editorship  of  Dr.  W.  P.  Harrison,  who  is  in  some  direc- 
tions the  rpost  scholarly  man  of  his  church.  Other  mate- 
rial has  been  gathered  from  my  contributions  to  the 
columns  of  standard  literary  and  religious  magazines  and 
journals.  A  very  considerable  part  of  it,  however,  is  now 
published  for  the  first  time.  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  the 
appreciation  of  many  personal  friends  who  will  take  the 
larger  part  of  the  present  edition.  I  wish  also  to  tender  my 
acknowledgments  to  Mrs.  Mary  Lanier,  of  Baltimore, 
and  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  of  New  York,  for  the  per- 
mission granted  me  to  append  to  my  .first  lecture  some  of 
the  choicest  poems  of  the  lamented  Sidney  Lanier.  My 
readers,  I  am  sure,  will  also  appreciate  their  kindness. 

W.   J.   SCOTT. 

Atlanta,  Ga. 


LECTURES. 


SIDNEY  LANIER— THE  POET, 


It  was  my  good  fortune  to  enjoy  the  personal  acquaint- 
ance of 'this  illustrious  poet.  That  acquaintance  was 
limited,  however,  to  a  few  brief  interviews,  which  were 
quite  informal  and  wholly  unpremeditated.  I  can  hardly 
say  that  he  sought  my  acquaintance,  and  I  am  sure  that 
I  did  not  seek  his  ;  for  as  yet  I  was  ignorant  of  his 
literary  antecedents,  and  I  doubt  if  he  himself  had  so 
much  as  dreamed  of  his  own  literary  possibilities. 

After  the  lapse  of  so  many  eventful  years  I  can  not 
be  exact  as  to  the  date  of  our  first  interview  ;  but  I  have 
a  clear  impression  that  it  was  in  the  early  summer  of 
1867,  at  Montgomery  Hall,  in  the  capital  city  of  Ala- 
bama. Having  entered  the  hotel — not  without  the 
proverbial  welcome  of  "mine  host" — I  wrote  my  name 
and  residence  on  the  register  and  took  my  seat  in  the 
rotunda  for  a  slight  rest  and  recuperation.  It  was  but 
a  little  while  until  I  was  approached  by  a  pleasant-faced 
young  gentleman  who  quietly  asked  if  I  was  the  editor 
of  Scoffs  Magazine  I  replied  affirmatively,  whereupon 
he  was  kind  enough  to  say  that  he  had  read  the  Maga- 
zine, and  liked  it  In  answer  to  an  inquiry  he  informed 
me  that  he  was  a  native  of  Macon,  Ga. ,  a  son  of  Robert 
S.  Lanier,  Esq.,  and  grandson  of  Sterling  Lanier,  two 
excellent  citizens  of  that  central  city.  Learning  that  I 


8  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

had  met  both  his  father  and  grand-father,  our  relation 
as  landlord  and  guest  became  more  pleasant  and  even 
somewhat  confidential.  He  presently  stated  that  he 
was  a  graduate  of  Oglethorpe  University,  and  after  his 
graduation  served  two  years  as  tutor  in  the  same  insti- 
tution, which  at  the  time  boasted  of  an  able  Faculty. 
Amongst  them  was  President  Samuel  K.  Talmage,  a 
near  kinsman  of  Dr.  De  Witt  Talmage,  of  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.  Another  member  of  the  Faculty  was  Prof. 
James  Woodrow,  since  eminent  for  scientific  attain- 
ments, to  whom  Mr.  Lanier  afterward  acknowledged 
his  indebtedness  for  much  valuable  aid  in  the  way  of 
mental  stimulus  and  inspiration. 

Like  thousands  of  our  most  cultured  young  men,  he 
responded  promptly  to  the  call  of  the  South  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war  between  the  States.  He  served 
in  the  ranks  for  more  than  two  years,  enjoying  an  occa- 
sional whiff  of  "villainous  saltpeter"  and  was  then 
transferred  to  the  Signal  Service  Corps.  While  in  this 
department  he  was  captured  on  a  blockade-runner,  and 
for  some  months  was  straitly  imprisoned  at  Point  Look- 
out. Shortly  before  the  close  of  the  war  he  was  released 
or  exchanged,  and  from  that  time  until  I  met  him  at 
Montgomery  he  had  bravely  battled  with  adverse  for- 
tune. During  this  first  conversation  he  also  stated  that 
he  was  an  occasional  writer  of  prose  and  verse,  and  then 
had  in  press  a  war  novel  with  the  quaint  title  of  "  Tiger 
Lilies."  I  confess  that  I  was  charmed  not  more  by  the 
evidences  of  his  varied  accomplishments  than  by  the 
frankness  of  his  whole  personal  bearing,  and  expressed 


SIDNEV    LANIER THE    POET.  9 

my  willingness  to  secure  a  contribution  for  Scott1  s  Maga- 
zine. 

On  the  next  day,  before  leaving  the  city,  I  accom- 
panied him  to  the  third  floor  of  the  hotel,  and,  unlocking 
his  trunk,  he  submitted  to  me  a  number  of  manuscripts 
— among  them  a  prose  article  entitled  4<  Three  Water- 
falls," which  struck  me  as  being  a  masterpiece  of  wit 
and  humor.  It  was  shortly  afterward  published  in  Scot? s 
Magazine,  and  will,  I  learn,  be  reproduced  in  a  forth- 
coming edition  of  his  writings.  I  am  quite  sure  it  will 
be  considered  by  the  better  class  of  readers  as  one  of 
the  finest  specimens  ot  classical  punning  within  the 
range  of  American  literature. 

Beyond  these  brief  in;erviews  I  had  no  personal 
knowledge  of  Lanier,  except  such  as  was  obtained  by 
occasional  correspondence  and  the  frequent  reading  of  his 
contributions  to  the  press.  Looking  back  to  our  first 
interview,  I  am  less  impressed  by  the  weary  stretch  of 
intervening  years  than  by  the  immense  moral  distance 
between  the  literary  status  of  the  Sidney  Lanier  of  that 
day,  then  alike  "  unknown  to  fortune  and  to  fame,"  and 
the  Sidney  Lanier  whose  bust  was  installed  a  few  months 
ago  in  the  library  room  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University 
amid  the  loud  acclaim  of  hundreds  of  the  warm  admirers 
of  his  phenomenal  genius. 

Owing  to  a  singular  perverseness  of  mankind,  most 
men  must  needs  die  to  be  appreciated.  History,  and 
especially  literary  biography,  is  replete  with  illustrations 
of  this  truth.  The  legendary  story  of  Apollo  is  in  point. 
It  is  related  of  him  that  while  upon  earth  he  kept  the 


IO  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

flocks  of  Admetus,  but  being  thereafter  translated 
to  the  skies,  became  the  god  ot  the  fine  arts,  and 
guided  the  chariot  of  the  sun  along  its  zodiac  way 
through  the  illimitable  heavens.  With  greater  histori- 
cal accuracy  is  it  said  that 

Nine  cities  claimed  the  mighty  Homer  dead, 
Through  which  the  living  Homer  begged  his  bread. 

Johnson,  in  his  "  Lives  of  the  Poets,"  tells  us  that 
Thomas  Otway  often  went  supperless  to  his  lodgings  in 
a  garret,  and  one  hundred  years  thereafter  William  Haz- 
litt,  the  best  of  dramatic  critics,  pronounced  his  "Venice 
Preserved  "  the  most  classical  English  tragedy  since  the 
Elizabethan  age. 

The  world  knows  by  heart  the  story  of  Robert  Burns. 
This  "foremost  Briton  of  the  eighteenth  century"  was 
incontinently  snubbed  by  the  provincial  gentry  of  Dum- 
fries. The  Government  itself  provided  no  better  reward 
for  his  services  to  humanity  than  the  place  of  an  excise- 
man, with  a  beggarly  stipend  of  forty  pounds  sterling 
per  annum  But  the  descendants  of  the  Dumfries  gentry 
have  erected  a  mausoleum  within  bow-shot  of  the  cot- 
tage where  he  died  in  abject  penury.  Sidney  Lanier 
himself  did  not  escape  the  "slings  and  arrows  of  out- 
rageous fortune"  in  the  shape  of  contemporary  criticism, 
which  he  heartily  despised,  and  doubtless  suffered  at 
times  from  "the  proud  man's  contumely"  and  the 
traditional  dullness  of  pig-headed  editors  and  reviewers. 
For  years,  at  least,  he  prosecuted  his  literary  work  under 
the  pressure  of  disease  and  in  the  face  of  discourage- 


SIDNEY     LANIER THE    POET.  I  I 

ments  that  would  have  shaken  the  constancy  of  any 
soul  less  heroic  in  its  aims  and  impulses.  Still,  in  less 
than  a  single  decade  from  his  death,  his  appreciative 
countrymen  project  a  fifteen  thousand  dollar  monument 
as  his  fitting  memorial. 

To  this  present  generation,  not  less  than  to  the  Jews 
of  Christ's  own  day,  may  be  properly  addressed  the 
words  of  the  great  Teacher:  "  Your  fathers  stoned  the 
prophets,  and  ye  build  their  sepulchers." 

Mr.  Lanier  was  exceedingly  fortunate  in  his  ances- 
try. While  I  am  a  Democrat,  both  in  my  social  instincts 
and  in  my  political  affinities,  I  am  nevertheless  a  believer 
in  blood,  and  in  blood  of  the  bluest  possible  tint.  Lanier 
was  not  born  in  the  purple,  nor  was  he  next  of  kin  to 
the  English  Howards ;  but  he  had  in  his  ethnical  make- 
up that  Huguenotic  strain  which  has  been  the  basis  of 
much  of  our  modern  civilization  in  both  hemispheres. 
When  Louis  XIV  signed  his  revocation  of  the  edict  of 
Nantes  he  depopulated  several  of  the  fairest  provinces 
of  France,  and  sent  tens  of  thousands  of  skilled  artisans 
and  their  families  to  England,  Switzerland,  and  the  Low 
Countries.  The  date  of  that  imperial  blunder  was  the 
day-dawn  of  English  manufactures  in  the  finer  silk  and 
woolen  fabrics.  Along  with  these  sturdy  craftsmen 
there  were  many  refugees  of  better  rank  and  fortune, 
not  only  the  co-religionists  of  Coligny  and  Conde',  but 
their  kinsmen  by  birth  or  marriage. 

At  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  these  French  Protestants, 
England,  partly  because  of  the  general  demoralization 
consequent  on  the  Commonwealth  wars,  but  chiefly  for 


12  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

lack  of  industrial  development  and'  enterprise,  had  rela- 
tively declined  in  national  distinction.  As  a  military 
power  she  was  neither  feared  nor  highly  respected  on 
the  Continent.  Her  neighbors  across  the  channel  out 
stripped  her  in  commercial  progress,  and  her  ancient 
ally,  Portugal,  surpassed  her  in  maritime  discovery.  The 
memories  of  Crecy  and  Agincourt  had  waxed  dim, 
and  Blenheim  and  Malplaquet  awaited  the  coming  of 
Eugene  and  Marlborough  to  give  them  historic  immor- 
tality. 

As  already  intimated,  the  arrival  of  these  French 
Protestants  was  followed  by  results  that  enabled  William 
III  to  dictate  the  peace  of  Ryswick,  and  not  many 
years  thereafter  constituted  England  the  workshop  of 
the  nations  and  the  mistress  of  the  seas.  Amongst  these 
Huguenots  were  the  ancestors  of  Mr.  Lanier.  These 
ancestors  were  greatly  distinguished  for  their  musical 
endowments.  In  that  capacity  they  were  connected 
with  the  court  during  several  generations.  Mr.  Lanier 
inherited  in  a  large  measure  these  gifts,  and  they  stood 
him  in  good  stead  before  he  had  obtained  any  wide 
recognition  as  an  author.  Because  of  his  marvelous 
accomplishments  as  first  flute  in  the  Peabody  Symphony 
Concerts  he  secured  the  friendship  and  patronage  of 
Bayard  Taylor,  the  poet  and  traveler.  Under  the 
auspices  of  this  steadfast  friend  he  gained  admittance  to 
the  best  literary  circles,  and  afterward  was  selected  to 
write  the  ode  for  the  Centennial  Cantata  at  Philadelphia 
in  1876  From  this  time  his  literary  success  was  assured. 
Besides  his  remunerative  position  as  lecturer  at  the  Johns 


SIDNEY     LANIER THE    POET.  13 

Hopkins  University  *he  was  frequently  solicited  to  do 
special  work  by  leading  publishers  in  New  York  and 
Boston. 

It  is  in  order  now  to  discontinue  these  biographical 
details  and  to  attempt  some  just  characterization  of  him 
as  a  poet.  To  do  this  intelligently  we  must  have  some- 
what to  say  of  his  equipment  for  his  chosen  life  work. 
He  was,  beyond  most  of  our  distinguished  English  or 
American  poets,  a  man  of  multifarious  learning.  Nor 
were  these  varied  attainments  in  the  least  superficial, 
but  as  thorough  as  they  were  comprehensive.  His  classi- 
cal training  was  rarely  equaled  in  any  age  or  country. 
A  classmate  of  his  at  Oglethorpe  University  informed 
me  that  while  yet  an  under-graduate  he  wrote  Greek 
and  Latin  with  more  facility  than  the  average  collegian 
could  prepare  the  customary  Greek  and  Latin  exercises. 
To  this  knowledge  of  the  classical  tongues  he  subse- 
quently added  an  intimate  knowledge  of  German,  French, 
and  Spanish.  Some  of  his  best  early  literary  work  con 
sisted  of  admirable  translations  from  standard  German 
poetry.  His  acquirements  in  Anglo-Saxon  literature 
were  so  well  known  that  the  Scribners  employed  him  to 
edit  their  "King  Arthur"  series  of  histories  for  boys. 

With  the  better  class  of  English  fiction,  beginning 
with  Fielding,  Richardson,  and  Smollett,  down  to 
Thackeray  and  George  Eliot,  he  exhibits  a  critical 
knowledge  that  will  make  his  work  on  "The  English 
Novel  and  the  Principle  of  Its  Development"  a  perma- 
nent contribution  to  our  standard  literature.  Indeed, 
the  reader  of  his  poems  will  be  struck  as  much  by  the 


14  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

affluence  of  his  learning  as  by  th'e  exuberance  of  his 
fancy  or  the  majestic  sweep  of  his  Miltonic  imagination. 
Nor  is  it  exaggeration  to  say  that  both  in  his  prose  and 
poetical  writings  we  find  frequent  proofs  of  the  fact  that 
he  ranged  at  large  and  at  will  through  all  the  fields  of 
human  investigation. 

Another  element  of  his  professional  outfit  was  his 
mastery  of  the  laws  of  English  versification.  In  this 
matter  his  musical  culture  was  exceedingly  helpful  to 
him,  because  of  the  close  relationship  that  exists  between 
the  sister  arts  of  music  and  poetry.  In  his  masterly  trea- 
tise on  "The  Science  of  English  Verse"  (which  he  wrote 
in  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time)  we  find  the  whole 
matter  of  English  prosody  brought  within  the  domain 
of  applied  science.  Barring  a  deal  of  rigmarole  about 
iambuses,  spondees,  and  dactyls,  that  science,  "falsely  so 
called,"  was  in  a  chaotic  condition.  Hitherto,  as  Lanier 
claimed,  criticism  was  without  "a  scientific  basis  for  its 
most  elementary  judgments  "  Had  he  lived  to  riper 
years,  he  would  have  consummated  a  beneficial  revolu- 
tion in  the  art  of  verse-making.  Even  as  the  matter 
was  left  by  him  he  has  contributed  vastly  to  our  former 
fund  of  information,  and  we  may  confidently  expect  a 
marked  advancement  in  the  technique  of  the  poetry  of  the 
future.  His  own  inimitable  versification  in  such  poems 
as  the  "  Marshes  of  Glynn  "  furnish  admirable  exempli- 
fications of  his  teachings.  Having  disposed  of  this  pre- 
liminary matter  of  equipment,  we  come  now  to  speak 
of  the  distinctive  excellences  of  his  poetry.  Not  the 
least  striking  of  these  distinctive  excellences  was  his 


SIDNEY     LANIER THE    POET.  15 

versatility.  The  bulk  of  his  published  poetry  is  not 
large,  but  his  wide  gamut  suggests  the  ever-shifting 
melodies  of  the  full  throated  mocking-bird,  whom  he  has 
so  aply  styled  the  "  trim  Shakespeare  of  the  tree." 

Mr.  Lanier  says  of  Tennyson,  for  whom  he  had  a 
more  enthusiastic  than  discriminative  appreciation,  that 
he  was  "wanting  in  some  register  of  wit."  That  is 
true  of  ihe  amiable  British  laureate,  as  his  writings 
abundantly  testify.  There  is  no  rollicking  humor,  no 
nimble  flashes  of  wit,  no  genial  interplay  of  emotion  or 
expression,  reminding  us  of  Pope's  oft  quoted  line : 

From  grave  to  gay,  from  lively  to  severe. 

Tennyson  might  have  written  an  Iliad,  but  by  no  possi- 
bility could  he  have  produced  a  "  Rape  of  the  Lock  " 
In  the  many-sided  Shakespeare  what  marvelous  fecun- 
dity of  creation  as  well  as  sentiment !  Richard  the 
hunch-back  tyrant,  and  Sir  John  Falstaff,  that  travesty 
on  knighthood  ;  Coriolanus,  with  his  hearty  patrician 
disdain  of  the  populace,  and  Marc  Antony,  whose 
witchery  of  appeal  charmed  and  captured  the  same 
babbling  Demos  of  the  forum.  So  likewise  the  melan- 
choly Dane,  wrestling  with  the  problem,  "is  life  worth 
living?"  and  the  fiery  Hotspur  venting  his  spleen  on 
the  lordly  popinjay  who  prated  glibly  of  <4  parmaceti," 
as  "  the  sovereignest  remedy  for  an  inward  bruise."  In 
these  two  examples  we  perceive  the  difference  between 
what  Goethe,  we  believe,  calls  "one-sided"  and  "all- 
sided  culture."  Shakespeare  was  akin  to  all  mankind. 
Tennyson,  whether  he  wrote  a  welcome  to  Alexandro- 


1 6  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

vina  or  the  touching  story  of  Enoch  Arden,  was  alike 
deficient  in  English  humor  and  in  French  wit.  His 
genius  was  provincial,  rather  than  cosmopolitan.  From 
aught  that  he  has  written  we  should  never  suspect  that 
he  was  a  compatriot  of  Lawrence  Sterne,  who  invented 
Corporal  Trim,  and  still  less  that  he  belonged  to  the 
same  race  with  Rabelais,  who  related  the  adventures  of 
Pantagruel.  On  the  other  hand,  Sidney  Lanier  touched 
every  chord  of  human  sentiment.  Contrast  the  light- 
lilting  "Song  of  the  Chattahoochee  "  with  the  dialect 
poem  "The  Power  of  Prayer,"  the  joint  production  of 
himself  and  his  brother  Clifford.  Place  side  by  side  his 
"Psalm  of  the  West"  and  his  ingeniously-wrought  tale 
of  the  "Jacquerie,"  and  you  perceive  the  utter  absence 
of  humdrum,  or  even  the  slightest  trace  of  offensive 
mannerism. 

But  perhaps  the  most  salient  point  of  Lanier's  poetry 
is  its  lofty  idealism.  He  was  neither  insensible  nor 
indifferent  to  the  morbid  tendency  of  the  age  to  material- 
ism in  philosophy,  and  realism  in  art  and  literature. 
Especially  did  he  condemn  the  Byronic  craze  that  in 
one  form  or  another  has  tainted  English  poetry  since 
the  memorable  morning  that  the  Lord  of  Newstead 
Abbey  waked  to  find  his  name  and  fame  the  club-talk 
of  London  from  Wapping  to  Westminister.  He  had 
little  patience  with  the  pessimistic  platitudes  of  Festus 
Bailey  and  even  a  more  pronounced  dislike  for  the  sen- 
sualism of  Swinburne  and  his  followers,  with  their 
prurient  fancies  and  erotic  rhymings.  Against  this 
school — rightly  named  Satanic — his  whole  soul  revolted 


SIDNEY     LANIER THE    POET  I/ 

with  infinite  loathing  and  disgust.  He  thought  of  these 
bards  as  did  Carlyle  of  certain  German  playwrights : 
that  their  writings  were  largely  a  nauseous  mixture  of 
"bawdry  and  blasphemy."  His  criticism  of  such  men 
as  \Valter  Whitman  and  William  Morris  may  have  an 
air  of  harshness,  but  it  is  in  keeping  with  his  whole 
theory  of  art,  whether  in  poetry,  painting,  or  sculpture. 
That  theory  he  embodies  in  the  terse  statement  that 
moral  beauty  and  artistic  beauty  are  best  represented 
by  convergent  lines  that  meet  at  a  common  point,  which 
is  ideal  beauty.  This  is  further  shown  in  his  employ- 
ment of  the  phrases,  "holiness  of  beauty"  and  "beauty 
of  holiness,"  as  correlative  and  complementary  With 
striking  emphasis,  likewise,  does  he  admonish  the 
students  of  Johns  Hopkins  University  that  they  may 
' '  abandon  the  hope  that  the  ages  will  accept  them  as 
artists"  unless  "they  are  suffused  with  truth,  goodness, 
wisdom,  and  love."  He  yet  further  charges  them  that 
a  high  moral  purpose  must  dominate  them,  whether 
they  work  "in  stone,  in  colors,  or  in  character-forms  of 
the  novel." 

To  refer  again  to  Byron,  we  may  justly  say  that  the 
lack  of  this  "  moral  purpose  "  and  of  the  spirit  of  moral 
goodness  was  the  bane  and  blight  oi  his  writings,  and 
lost  him  that  immortality  which  by  intellectual  endow- 
ment he  was  eminently  fitted  to  achieve.  It  was  the 
presence  and  inspiration  of  this  enthusiastic  love  of 
moral  beauty  that  gave  to  Lanier  his  grandest  succes- 
ses. In  reference  to  this  trait  of  Lanier's  character  and 
genius  we  borrow  the  annexed  paragraph  from  William 


1 8  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

Hayes  Ward,  to  whose  excellent  memorial  sketch  we 
are  indebted  for  both  valuable  facts  and  suggestions  in 
the  preparation  of  this  review.  Mr.  Ward  says:  "  It 
was  this  constant  '  San  Greal '  quest  after  the  lofty  in 
character  and  aim  which  made  him  worthy  of  fellowship 
with  Milton  and  Ruskin,  and  which  puts  him  in  sharpest 
contrast  with  the  school  led  by  Swinburne — a  school 
whose  reed  has  a  short  gamut,  and  plays  but  two  notes  : 
Mars  and  Eros,  hopeless  death  and  lawless  love. " 

But  we  propose  now  to  furnish  some  illustrations  of 
the  idealistic  trend  of  Lanier's  muse.  Wadsworth's 
"  Peter  Bell "  was  so  intently  realistic  that 

A  primrose  by  a  river's  brim 
A  yellow  primrose  was  to  him, 
And  nothing  more. 

The  tribe  of  Peter  Bell  is  not  extinct,  but  rather  on  the 
increase,  in  this  matter-of-fact  age.  On  the  contrary, 
Sidney  Lanier  cast  the  glamour  of  his  marvelous  fancy 
over  the  common  incidents  of  every-day  life,  and  they 
became  lustrous  with  supernal  beauty.  Indeed,  things 
great  and  small  are  only  so  relatively.  Trees  have 
tongues — witness  the  ' 'Talking  Oak"  of  Tennyson— 
and  Lanier  is  reported  to  have  said  that  the  footstalk  of 
a  violet  was  to  him  a  Jacob's  ladder  reaching  to  the 
gates  of  Heaven.  Let  us  illustrate  this  thought  by  a 
single  familiar  instance.  Thousands  of  people  who 
resided  in  the  South  Atlantic  States  during  the  recon- 
struction period  will  recall  the  scarcity  of  grain.  This 
was  especially  true  of  Middle  Georgia.  That  section 


SIDNEY    LANIER THE    POET.  19 

had  been  harried  by  Yankee  troopers,  and  utterly  devas- 
tated during  Sherman's  historical  "march  to  the  sea.7' 
The  farmers,  after  the  downfall  of  the  Confederacy,  were 
sorely  straitened  for  food-supplies,  and  even  for  seed- 
corn.  The  high  price  of  cotton  stimulated  its  produc- 
tion, and  materially  lessened  the  acreage  devoted  to 
breadstuffs.  This  policy  very  soon  brought  the  agri- 
cultural class  to  the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  It  was  with 
reference  to  this  pitiable  condition  of  things,  greatly 
aggravated  by  the  tumble  of  the  cotton  market,  that 
Mr.  Lanier,  while  sojourning  at  Sunny  Side,  a  small 
railway  station  below  Atlanta,  wrote  his  remarkable 
poem  entitled  "  Corn  "  for  Lippincot? s  Magazine.  There 
seemed  little  in  the  theme  which  allowed  of  poetic  treat- 
ment, but  he  touched  it  with  the  wand  of  Prospero,  and 
straightway  it  was  transfigured.  By  the  magic  of  genius 
the  tasseled  corn-row  became  a  thing  of  exquisite  beawty. 
This  poem  was  widely  copied  and  greatly  admired  in  all 
sections  of  the  Union.  While  all  of  it  is  admirable, 
perhaps  the  part  that  best  illustrates  the  idealistic  faculty 
of  the  poet  is  his  apostrophe  to  the  Old  Red  Hills  of 
Georgia.  This  apostrophe  follows  what  he  has  to  say 
of  the  unthrifty  farmer,  whom  he  describes  as 

Sailing  in  borrowed  ships  of  usury — 
A  foolish  Jason  on  a  treacherous  sea, 
Seeking  the  fleece  and  finding  misery. 

And  now  comes  the  apostrophe : 

Old  Hill,  Old  Hill !   thou  gashed  and  hoary  Lear 
Whom  the  divine  Cordelia  of  the  year, 


2O  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

E'en  pitying  Spring  will  vainly  strive  to  cheer ; 

King  whom  no  subject  man  nor  beast  will  own, 

Discrowned,  undaughtered,  and  alone  ; 

Yet  shall  the  great  God  turn  thy  fate 

And  bring  thee  back  into  thy  monarch  state 

And  majesty  immaculate. 

How  vividly  does  this  bring  to  mind  that  midnight 
storm  upon  the  blasted  heath,  when  Lear,  a  poor,  weak, 
despised  old  man,  betrayed  by  his  unnatural  daughters, 
Regan  and  Goneril,  challenged  the  thunder  to  do  its 
utmost — rumble  its  bellyful — and  talks  in  a  weird  way 
to  the  zigzag  lightning,  and  says  most  piteously  to  these 
warring  elements:  "  You  are  not  my  daughters.  I  tax 
you  not  with  unkindness.  I  never  gave  you  my  king- 
dom ;  you  owe  me  no  subscription." 

But  this  lofty  idealism  is  still  more  conspicuous  in  the 
"  Marshes  of  Glynn  "  This  poem  was  designed  to  con- 
sist of  six  hymns,  yet  was  left  incomplete.  Some  of  it, 
which  was  published,  was  written  when  he  was  so 
enfeebled  by  disease  that  he  could  with  extreme  diffi- 
culty lift  his  food  to  his  mouth.  There  would  seem  to 
be  as  little  poetic  inspiration  in  the  salt-marshes  of  Glynn 
as  in  the  desert  sands  of  Barca.  The  stunted  vegetation 
is  chiefly  of  cypress-knees  and  saw  palmettoes.  The 
filthy  lagoons  are  the  habitat  of  slimy  serpents  and 
unsightly  saurians,  and  besides,  the  nursery  of  noxious 
insects.  And  yet  Lake  Como,*  as  pictured  by  Claude 
Melnotte  to  the  trustful  Pauline,  was  not  so  ravishingly 
beautiful  when  the  tide  was  in  its  noon 


SIDNEY     LANIER THE    POET.  21 

As  the  length  and  the  breadth  and  the  sweep  of  the 

marshes  of  Glynn, 

Stretching  leisurely  off  in  a  pleasant  plain 
To  the  terminal  blue  of  the  main. 

We  can  not,  however,  within  our  allotted  space, 
enlarge  on  this  particular  poem.  The  idealism  of  Lanier's 
poetry  is  after  all  best  exemplified  in  ' 4  The  Symphony, " 
the  grandest  production  of  his  genius,  not  likely  to  be 
fully  appreciated  for  some  years  to  come,  but  which  of 
itself  constitutes  him  the  poet  of  a  better  time  coming. 
In  "an  age  of  calculators  and  economists" — and  we 
may  add  of  philosophisms  and  philanthropisms — when 
truth  and  virtue  and  righteousness  are  tested  by  the 
touch-stone  of  the  five  senses,  we  may  not  look  for  such 
subtle  and  transcendental  philosophy  to  receive  its  just 
recompense,  either  in  "  pudding  or  praise."  But  if  in 
the  upward  march  of  the  higher  civilization  there  should 
come  a  resurrection  day  for  the  dead  chivalries  and 
sanctities  that  hallowed  Calvary  and  flamed  on  Sinai, 
and  indeed  that  have  found  fitting  expression  in  lowlier 
lives  and  humbler  ways,  then  this  wonderful  poem,  will 
find  fit  audience  and  wide  acceptance. 

Neither  in  Alexander  Pope's  "Ode  for  St.  Cecilia's 
Day  "  nor  in  the  "  Alexander's  Feast ''  of  John  Dryden 
is  there  such  a  tribute  to  music  in  its  higher  departments 
as  Richard  Wagner  interpreted  it  in  his  best  scores. 
There  are  indeed  single  passages  in  the  "  Symphony" 
that  might  suffice  to  make  a  poet's  reputation. 

It  remains  to  be  said  that  the  poetry  of  Sidney  Lanier 


22  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

is  not  only  idealistic,  but  likewise  ethical,  and  even 
notably  Christian  in  its  tone  and  expression. 

All  those  grand  old  bards,  w'hose  epic  songs  vibrate 
through  the  ages,  had,  like  Ezekiel  or  Isaiah,  the  vales 
gift,  albeit  in  a  smaller  measure.  Blind  Homer,  when 
he  wrote  the  tale  of  Troy  divine,  or  when  he  recounted 
the  adventures  of  the  wide-wandering  Ulysses,  saw  God 
and  his  providence  in  things  both  great  and  small.  It 
was  wise  and  fitting  that  he  should  begin  the  Iliad  with 
a  reverent  invocation  of  the  heavenly  goddess.  So  Vir- 
gil, in  his  less-impassioned  recital  of  the  warfaring  and 
wayfaring  of  the  pious  yEneas,  was  not  forgetful  of  the 
eternal  verities.-  Nor  was  Dante,  when  in  exile  and 
want  he  sung  his  Divina  Commedia,  less  conscious  of 
his  high  mission  than  was  the  exile  of  Patmos  when  he 
saw  the  Apocalypse.  In  him  it  has  been  well  said, 
"Ten  silent  centuries  "  found  a  voice  whose  echoes  still 
abide.  So  too  of  Milton,  "  fallen  on  evil  days  and  evil 
tongues. "  His  was  no  ' '  middle  flight  "  when  he  spoke 
"of  man's  first  disobedience,'7  and  when,  later  in  life, 
infirm  and  blind,  he  sung  of  "  Paradise  Regained. " 

\Ve  claim  that  Sidney  Lanier  had  this  vates  faculty  in 
no  small  degree.  Mr.  Ward,  his  memorialist,  fails  to 
clearly  recognize  this  religious  element  in  his  poetry. 
We  think  this  constitutes  his  greatest  merit.  Nor  was 
it  due  chiefly,  as  has  been  suggested,  to  his  early  Cal- 
vinistic  training,  but  quite  as  much  to  his  fine  brain-tissue 
and  his  exquisite  nervous  organism.  We  grant  that  in 
his  poem  of  "Remonstrance"  he  records  a  vigorous 
protest  against  mere  ecclesiasticism.  But  this,  properly 


SIDNEY     LANIER THE    POET.  23 

understood,  is  simply  a  nineteenth-century  echo  of  the 
"  Woe  unto  you,  scribes,  Pharisees,  hypocrites  !"  which 
fell  from  the  lips  of  Him -who  spake  as  man  never  spake, 
and  who  on  occasion  spoke  as  one  having  authority.  It 
was  in  this  Christly  spirit  that  Sidney  Lanier  spurned 
the  narrow  limitations  of  merely  human  creeds,  and 
challenged  for  the  soul  that  larger  liberty  which  is  its 
birthright  by  virtue  of  redemption.  Elsewhere — we 
ought  to  say  everywhere — he  champions  the  essential 
truths  of  Christianity.  In  "The  Crystal  "  this  is  strik- 
ingly true.  He  says  of  Socrates,  Buddha,  Aurelius, 
Epictetus,  and  their  kindred  spirits,  that  they,  one  and 
all,  were  marred  by  ' '  some  heinous  freckle  of  the  flesh," 
or  it  might  be  some  "  little  mole  "  that  marks  and  seals 
their  kinship  to  mankind.  But  of  the  blessed  Christ  he 
speaks  on  this  wise : 

But  thee,  but  thee,  O  sovereign  seer  of  time 

But  thee,  O  poet's  poet,  wisdom's  tongue ; 

But  thee,  O  man's  best  man,  O  love's  best  love ; 

O  perfect  life  in  perfect  labor  writ; 

O  all  men's  comrade,  servant,  king,  or  priest : 

What  if,  or  yet,  what  mole,  what  flaw,  what  lapse, 

What  least  defect  or  shadow  of  defect, 

What  rumor  tattled  by  an  enemy, 

Of  inference  loose,  what  lack  of  grace, 

Even  in  torture's  grasp  or  sleep's  or  death's — 

O  what  amiss  may  I  forgive  in  thee, 

Jesus,  good  Paragon,  thou  Crystal  Christ! 

Similar  utterances  may  be  found  in  any  of  his  larger 
poems,   even  when  picked  up  at  random,   and  clearly 


24  LECTURES     AND     ESSAYS. 

warrant  the  conclusion  that  he  was  in  no  dubious  sense 
a  Christian  bard. 

It  has  already  been  intimated  that  for  several  years 
he  had  been  a  sufferer  from  chronic  invalidism.  Such, 
however,  was  his  devotion  to  duty,  and  such  his  faculty 
of  endurance,  that  he  wrought  at  his  literary  tasks  with 
only  occasional  intermissions.  At  intervals  he  tried 
alternately  the  soft  climate  of  the  Florida  flats  and  then 
the  more  bracing  atmosphere  of  Central  Pennsylvania. 
As  the  end  drew  near  he  resolved  to  test  life  in  the 
mountainous  district  of  Western  North  Carolina.  But 
neither  change  of  scene  nor  climate  afforded  more  than 
temporary  relief.  In  all  these  years  of  pain  and  weari- 
ness he  had  the  loving  ministrations  of  a  wife  ever  fond 
and  ever  faithful.  In  September,  1881,  the  supreme 
moment  came  when,  as  his  wife  touchingly  writes, 
"that  unfaltering  will  rendered  its  submission  to  the 
adored  will  of  God."  Reckoned  "by  figures  on  a  dial's 
face  "  his  years  were  few,  but  measured  by  the  far-reach- 
ing results  of  his  lifework  they  were  like  the  stars  for 
multitude. 

He  died  at  an  age  when  Wordsworth  had  not  written 
his  "  Excursion,''  nor  Tennyson  his  "In  Memoriam." 
What  else  he  might  have  accomplished  is  matter  of  con- 
jecture, but  he  did  enough  to  be  enrolled,  as  Mr.  Ward 
has  said,  amongst  "  the  princes  of  song." 

We  are  not  advised  of  the  scenes  of  his  death-cham- 
ber, nor  indeed  is  it  always  wise  to  unveil  these  sacred 
things  to  the  world's  "broad-unwinking  eyes."  His 
brother  poet,  Henry  Timrod,  expressed  a  common 


SIDNEY    LANIER — THE    POET.  25 

sentiment  when  his  wife,  looking  into  his  face,  tenderly 
said:  ''Husband,  dear,  you  will  soon  be  at  rest." 
"  Yes,"  responded  the  dying  poet,  "but,  darling,  love 
is  stronger  than  rest. " 

A  few  months  ago  I  read  some  beautiful  lines  addressed 
"To  Sidney  Lanier,  on  the  Paradise  Side  of  the  River 
of  Death."  They  were  written  by  a  Northern  lady  of 
merited  distinction.  Without  any  purpose  to  theolo- 
gize or  even  to  moralize  unduly,  I  beg  to  express  the 
conviction  that  the  artistic  development  of  Sidney 
Lanier,  which  was  momentarily  arrested  by  the  stroke 
of  death,  has  been  renewed  under  serener  skies  in  the 
"  life  elysian."  It  may  be  that  he  has  already  reached 
that  stage  of  "  quiet  and  eternal  frenzy  "  where  he  has 
an  open  vision  of  the  blended  "beauty  of  holiness  and 
holiness  of  beauty"  which  he  ever  esteemed  the  con- 
summation of  the  poetic  art  and  the  climax  of  all  high 
literary  excellence. 


26  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS 


SONG  OF  THE  CHATTAHOOCHEE 


Out  of  the  hills  of  Habersham, 

Down  the  valleys  of  Hall, 
I  hurry  amain  to  reach  the  plain, 
Run  the  rapid  and  leap  the  fall, 
Split  at  the  rock  and  together  again, 
Accept  my  bed,  or  narrow  or  wide, 
And  flee  from  folly  on  every  side, 
With  a  lover's  pain  to  attain  the  plain 

Far  from  the  hills  of  Habersham, 

Far  from  the  valleys  of  Hall. 

All  down  the  hills  of  Habersham, 

All  through  the  valleys  of  Hall, 
The  rushes  cried  Abide,  abide, 
The  willful  waterweeds  held  me  thrall, 
The  laving  laurel  turned  my  tide, 
The  ferns  and  the  fondling  grass  said  Stay 
The  dewberry  dipped  for  to  work  delay, 
And  the  little  reeds  sighed  Abide,  abide, 

Here  in  the  hills  of  Habersham, 

Here  in  the  valleys  of  Hall. 

High  o'er  the  hills  of  Habersham, 
Veiling  the  valleys  of  Hall, 
The  hickory  told  me  manifold 
Fair  tales  of  shade,  the  poplar  tall 
Wrought  me  her  shadowy  self  to  hold, 


SIDNEY     LANIER THE     POET.  2/ 

The  chestnut,  the  oak,  the  walnut,  the  pine, 
Overleaning,  with  flickering  meaning  and  sign, 
Said,  Pass  not,  so  cold,  these  manifold 

Deep  shades  of  the  hills  of  Habersham, 

These  glades  in  the  valleys  of  Hall. 

And  oft  in  the  hills  of  Habersham, 

And  oft  in  the  valleys  of  Hall, 

The  white  quartz  shone,  and  the  smooth  brook-stone 
Did  bar  me  of  passage  with  friendly  brawl, 
And  many  a  luminous  jewel  lone 
— Crystals  clear  or  a-cloud  with  mist, 
Ruby,  garnet  and  amethyst — 
Made  lures  with  the  lights  of  streaming  stone 

In  the  clefts  of  the  hills  of  Habersham, 

In  the  beds  of  the  valleys  of  Hall. 

But  oh,  not  the  hills  of  Habersham, 

And  oh,  not  the  valleys  of  Hall 
Avail :  I  am  fain  for  to  water  the  plain. 
Downward  the  voices  of  Duty  call — 
Downward,  to  toil  and  be  mixed  with  the  main, 
The  dry  fields  burn,  and  the  mills  are  to  turn, 
And  a  myriad  flowers  mortally  yearn, 
And  the  lordly  main  from  beyond  the  plain 

Calls  o'er  the  hills  of  Habersham, 

Calls  through  the  valleys  of  Hall. 


28  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 


THE  MOCKING  BIRD. 

Superb  and  sole,  upon  a  plumed  spray 

That  o'er  the  general  leafage  boldly  grew, 

He  summ'd  the  woods  in  song ;  or  typic  drew 

The  watch  of  hungry  hawks,  the  lone  dismay 

Of  languid  doves  when  long  their  lovers  stray, 

And  all  birds'  passion-plays  that  sprinkle  dew 

At  morn  in  brake  or  bosky  avenue. 

What  e'er  birds  did  or  dreamed,  this  bird  could  say. 

Then  down  he  shot,  bounced  airily  along 

The  sward,  twitched  in  a  grasshopper,  made  song 

Midflight,  perched,  prinked,  and  to  his  art  again. 

Sweet  Science,  this  large  riddle  read  me  plain  : 

How  may  the  death  of  that  dull  insect  be 

The  life  of  yon  trim  Shakespere  on  the  tree? 


THAR'S  MORE  IN  THE  MAN  THAN  THAR  is  IN  THE  LAND, 


I  knowed  a  man,  which  he  lived  in  Jones, 
Which  Jones  is  a  county  of  red  hills  and  stones, 
And  he  lived  pretty  much  by  gittin'  of  loans. 
And  his  mules  was  nuthin'  but  skin  and  bones, 
And  his  hogs  was  flat  as  his  corn-bread  pones, 
And  he  had  'bout  a  thousand  acres  o'  land. 

This  man — which  his  name  it  was  also  Jones — 

He  swore  that  he'd  leave  them  old  red  hills  and  stones, 

Fur  he  couldn't  make  nuthin'  but  yallerish  cotton, 


SIDNEY     LANIER THE    POET.  2Q 

And  little  o'  that,  and  his  fences  was  rotten, 
And  what  little  corn  he  had,  hit  was  boughten 
And  dinged  ef  a  livin'  was  in  the  land. 

And  the  longer  he  swore  the  madder  he  got, 
And  he  riz  and  he  walked  to  the  stable  lot, 
And  he  hollered  to  Tom  to  come  thar  and  hitch 
Fur  to  emigrate  somewhar  whar  land  was  rich, 
And  to  quit  raisin'  cock-burs,  thistles  and  sich, 
And  a  wastin'  ther  time  on  the  cussed  land. 

So  him  and  Tom  they  hitched  up  the  mules, 
Pertestin'  that  folks  was  mighty  big  fools 
That  'ud  stay  in  Georgy  ther  lifetime  out, 
Just  scratchin'  a  livin'  when  all  of 'em  mought 
Git  places  in  Texas  whar  cotton  would  sprout 
By  the  time  you  could  plant  it  in  the  land. 

And  he  driv  by  a  house  whar  a  man  named  Brown 
Was  a  livin',  not  fur  from  the  edge  o'  town, 
And  he  bantered  Brown  fur  to  buy  his  place, 
And  said  that  bein'  as  money  was  skace, 
And  bein'  as  sheriffs  was  hard  to  face, 
Two  dollars  an  acre  would  git  the  land. 

They  closed  at  a  dollar  and  fifty  cents, 

And  Jones  he  bought  him  a  waggin  and  tents, 

And  loaded  his  corn,  and  his  wimmin,  and  truck, 

And  moved  to  Texas,  which  it  tuck 

His  entire  pile,  with  the  best  of  luck, 

To  git  thar  and  git  him  a  little  land. 


3O  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

But  Brown  moved  out  on  the  old  Jones  farm, 
And  he  rolled  up  his  Breeches  and  bared  his  arm, 
And  he  picked  all  the  rocks  from  off'n  the  groun', 
And  he  rooted  it  up  and  he  plowed  it  down, 
Then  he  sowed  his  corn  and  his  wheat  in  the  land. 

Five  years  glid  by,  and  Brown,  one  day 

(Which  he'd  got  so  fat  that  he  wouldn't  weigh), 

Was  a  settin'  down,  sorter  lazily, 

To  the  bulliest  dinner  you  ever  see, 

When  one  o'  the  children  jumped  on  his  knee 

And  says,  "Van's  Jones,  which  you  bought  his  land." 

And  thar  was  Jones,  standin'  out  at  the  fence, 
And  he  hadn't  no  waggin,  nor  mules,  nor  tents, 
Fur  he  had  left  Texas  afoot  and  cum 
To  Georgy  to  see  if  he  couldn't  git  sum 
Employment,  and  he  was  a  lookin'  as  hum- 
Ble  as  ef  he  had  never  owned  any  land. 

But  Brown  he  axed  him  in,  and  he  sot 

Him  down  to  his  vittles  smokin'  hot, 

And  when  he  had  filled  hisself  and  the  floor 

Brown  looked  at  him  sharp  and  riz  and  swore 

That,  "whether  men's  land  was  rich  or  poor 

Thar  was  more  in  the  man  than  thar  is  in  the  land.'1'1 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  3! 


EDGAR  ALLAN  POE, 


The  stray  child  of  Poetry  and  Passion. — Mrs.   Osgood. 


The  life  of  this  greatest  of  American  Poets  constitutes 
the  most  romantic  chapter  in  the  history  of  modern 
literature. 

Born  as  he  was,  in  the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  having  died  .within  the  memory  of  some  of 
the  present  generation,  the  date  and  place  of  his  birth, 
and  even  the  manner  of  his  death  and  entombment  are 
still  matters  of  grave  disputation.  No  little  of  this 
biographical  "muddle"  is  due  to  the  artful  conceal- 
ments and  startling  mendacities  of  Rufus  Wilmot 
Griswold,  his  self-constituted  literary  executor,  and 
unfortunately  his  earliest  biographer.  A  majority  of 
writers  and  readers  taking  their  cue  from  Griswold, 
have  fixed  upon  Baltimore  as  the  place,  and  1811  as 
the  date  of  his  birth.  Poe,  himself,  in  an  article  pub- 
lished in  a  New  York  journal,  avers  that  he  was  born 
in  Boston,  January,  1809,  a  fact  he  is  careful  to  subjoin, 
of  which  "he  was  heartily  ashamed,  but  for  which  he 
was  in  no  wise  personally  responsible. "  Griswold  asserts 
that  this  is  a  hoax.  Later  investigations,  however, 
strongly  corroborate  Poe's  statement.  He  was  born  in 


32  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

Boston  while  his  father  and  mother,  who  were  profes- 
sional actors,  were  playing  a  dramatic  engagement  for 
the  sinful  diversion  of  the  descendants  of  those  staid 
Puritans,  who  prohibited  Tennis  playing  by  statute  and 
straitly  forbade  the  husband  to  kiss  his  wife  on  Sunday 
without  saying  grace  before  and  after  the  sumptuous 
smack. 

Poe,  however,  always  claimed  to  be  a  Southerner 
because  of  his  Southern  lineage.  His  ancestors  had 
resided  in  Maryland  for  one  hundred  years  before  his 
birth.  His  grand-father  was  a  distinguished  officer  of 
the  famous  Maryland  line  in  Revolutionary  days,  and 
was,  besides,  an  intimate  friend  of  LaFayette,  whom 
Carlyle  jeeringly  styles  '^Grandison  Cromwell,  the  hero 
of  two  hemispheres."  Poe's  father  was  a  lawyer  of 
Baltimore,  who  married  Elizabeth  Arnold,  an  English 
actress  of  good  repute,  and  of  considerable  distinction 
in  her  profession.  His  family  were  at  first  greatly 
offended  by  this  mesalliance,  as  they  esteemed  it,  but 
shortly  afterwards  received  his  wife  into  their  circle. 

While  yet  a  child,  Poe,  together  with  his  elder  brother 
William  Henry  Lennox,  and  his  only  sister  Rosalie, 
were  reduced  to  orphanage  and  destitution.  His  mother 
died  in  Baltimore  December,  1811,  and  his  father 
perished  in  the  memorable  conflagration  of  the  Rich- 
mond Theater,  December  26th,  of  the  same  year.  Some 
people  of  a  morbid  theological  bias  saw  in  this  last 
named  occurrence  the  vengeful  hand  of  a  retributive 
Providence.  But  we  suffer  that  to  pass  without  chal- 
lenge or  controversy.  The  Baltimore  relatives  took 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  33 

charge  of  his  brother  and  sister,  while  Poe,  himself, 
was  adopted  by  Mr.  John  Allan,  a  wealthy  and  childless 
citizen  of  Richmond,  Va.  This  gentleman  of  the  old 
school  found  his  foster-child  a  wayward  lad,  self-willed, 
but  at  the  same  time  a  boy  of  brilliant  promise.  .  While 
yet  quite  young  he  carried  him  to  England  and  placed 
him  for  five  years  in  the  select  school  of  Rev.  Dr. 
Bransby,  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  at  Stoke  Newington. 
Poe  had  many  vivid  memories  of  those  early  school  days 
and  reproduced  some  of  his  experiences  in  his  masterly 
story  of  "William  Wilson."  Dr.  Bransby  was  a  fair 
specimen  of  old-time  pedagogy,  a  sort  of  curious  com- 
pound of  Dominie  Samson  in  Waverly,  and  Dr.  Prim- 
rose in  "  The  Vicar  of  Wakefield."  He  was  doubtless 
proud  of  his  American  pupil,  who  was  facile  princeps 
amongst  his  English  fellow  students.  Poe  had  a  knack 
of  heading  his  classes  and  was  their  recognized  leader 
in  out-door  sports  and  exercises. 

At  the  end  of  five  years  he  returned  with  his  god- 
parents to  Richmond,  where  he  spent  a  short  time  in 
school  in  that  city.  Thence  he  was  transferred  to  the 
University  of  Virginia,  matriculating  at  the  immature 
age  of  sixteen  years.  He  remained  at  this  venerable 
institution  but  a  single  year,  exhibiting  both  brain  and 
brawn,  and  as  usual,  carrying  off  the  prizes  for  Latin 
and  French.  Being  a  petted  child  of  fortune,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  his  conduct  was  not  the  most  exemplary. 

President  Maupin,  in  answer,  however,  to  the  false 
charges  of  Griswold  of  general  bad  behavior,  says  that 
there  was  no  accusation  against  him  on  the  records  of 


34  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

the  Faculty.  It  is,  notwithstanding,  pretty  certain  that 
he  was  fond  of  both  long  and  short  cards  and  contracted 
gambling  debts,  which  Mr.  Allan  refused  to  pay — the 
cause  01  the  first  serious  rupture  between  the  son  and 
father.  For  a  time  he  turned  his  back  on  the  paternal 
mansion.  During  this  season  of  estrangement  he  coquet- 
ted with  the  "  sacred  nine  "  and  published  a  volume  of 
Juvenile  Poems  for  private  circulation.  One  of 'these 
juvenalia  he  many  years  afterwards  read  before  the 
Boston  Lyceum.  His  transcendental  audience  applauded 
it  with  "three  times  three,"  "especially  those  knotty 
passages,"  says  Poe,  which  he  himself  d:d  not  under- 
stand. Unluckily  he  divulged  the  hoax  over  a  bottle 
of  champagne  with  Whipple  the  critic,  Gushing  the 
diplomat,  and  other  personal  friends.  When  the  Middle- 
sex Junta  of  literary  artisans  learned  that  they  had  been 
victimized  they  pelted  Poe  with  the  choicest  epithets  of 
the  fish  market.  His  only  reply  was,  that  his  poem 
deserved  all  that  was  said  of  it.  He  still  farther  increased 
the  furious  outcry  by  asserting  that  he  had  written  and 
printed  the  offending  poem  when  he  was  only  ten  years  of 
age.  This,  of  course,  was  a  bit  of  mischievious  exag- 
geration which  served  his  main  purpose.  $ 

But  we  take  up  afresh  the  thread  of  our  narrative.  A 
partial  reconcilement  between  the  father  and  son  resulted 
in  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Poe  to  a  cadetship  in  the 
Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  upon  the  recom- 
mendation of  General  Winfield  Scott.  His  stay  at  the 
Military  Academy  was  made  unpleasant  to  the  young 
cadet  by  his.  invincible  aversion  to  the  constraint  ot  its 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  35 

drill  and  discipline.  His  reckless  disobedience  to  orders 
led  to  his  dismissal  from  the  service.  Ingram,  one  of 
his  best  biographers,  suggests  that  it  was  "  the  old  story 
of  Pegasus  hitched  to  the  plow."  We  rather  prefer  the 
similar  antique  story  of  Hercules  holding  the  distaff  of 
Omphale.  His  undignified  leave-taking  of  West  Point 
is  followed  by  two  years  of  oblivion.  His  enemies  have 
spoken  of  his  enlistment  in  the  regular  army  and  subse- 
quent desertion  as  pertaining  to  that  period.  Another 
story  is,  that  he  and  his  god-father  again  quarrelled, 
and  Poe  in  a  freak  of  enthusiasm  set  out  to  help  the 
Greeks  in  their  struggle  for  freedom.  Others  say  that 
Warsaw  was  his  objective  point,  his  purpose  being 
to  assist  the  Poles  in  their  desperate  contest  with  Russia. 
In  this  same  connection  we  have  an  account  of  sundry 
adventures  in  St.  Petersburg  and  London,  that  are 
purely  apochryphal.  It  is  possible  that  the  whole 
story  was  a  "Comedy  of  Errors"  growing  out  of  the 
confounding  of  the  great  Poet  with  his  less  distin- 
guished brother,  William  Henry  Lennox  Poe.  It  is 
clear,  however,  that  for  some  reason,  Poe  was  himself 
strangely  reticent  in  regaid  to  this  period  of  his  life. 
.Meanwhile  Mr.  Allan  had  married  his  second  wile,  a 
Miss  Patterson,  who  brought  him  a  son  and  heir,  and 
Poe  found  himself  practically  disowned,  and  ultimately 
cut  off  without  a  shilling. 

Our  first  distinct  glimpse  of  him  after  these  two  years 
is  as  a  competitor  for  two  prizes  offered  by  a  Baltimore 
paper,  the  Saturday  Visitor,  for  the  best  poem  and  the 
best  tale.  He  was  awarded  both  prizes,  an  event  which 


36  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

not  only  relieved  him  from  pressing  pecuniary  need, 
but  secured  him  the  favorable  notice  of  Mr.  John  P. 
Kennedy,  the  author  of  "Swallow  Barn"  and  other 
publications  of  solid  merit. 

Griswold  with  his  usual  snap  and  snarl  attributes  his 
success  in  this  literary  venture  to  his  beautiful  chiro- 
graphy.  The  certificate  of  the  committee  fully  disproves 
that  gratuitous  assertion.  The  tale  that  obtained  the 
prize  was  one  of  the  best  of  his  earliest  productions, 
afterwards  published  in  his  * '  Tales  of  the  Grotesque 
and  Arabesque,"  and  the  Poem  which  won  the  other 
prize  was  "The  Coliseum"  which  was  a  classical  gem. 
While  sojourning  at  Baltimore  Poe  perpetrated  a  practi- 
cal hoax  which  cost  him  a  deal  of  trouble,  i  1  e  announced 
that  on  the  morning  of  April  1st,  he  would  with  the 
help  of  his  newly  invented  flying  machine,  fly  from  one 
shot  tower  to  another,  a  distance  of  about  three  hundred 
feet.  The  announcement  excited  great  expectations 
with  the  simple-minded  and  unsuspecting.  An  immense 
throng  assembled  to  witness  the  feat,  but  Poe  did  not 
appear.  In  the  afternoon  he  published  a  card  of  regrets 
stating  that  he  could  not  keep  his  engagement  because 
unfortunately  one  of  his  wings  got  wet. 

The  disappointment  roused  the  ire  of  the  rabble  and 
grave  threats  were  made  of  personal  violence.  At  this 
juncture  Poe  was  indebted  to  the  kind  offices  of  Mr. 
Kennedy  for  an  editorial  position  on  the  Southern  Lite- 
raiy  Messenger,  when  he  was  fairly  launched  on  the 
turbulent  sea  of  literature.  It  was  soon  discovered  that 
"no  prentice  hand"  was  on  the  helm,  and  the  Messenger's 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  37 

circulation  jumped  from  seven  hundred  to  five  thousand 
subscribers.  During  this  engagement  Poe  wedded  his 
beautiful  cousin,  Virginia  Clemm,  who  clung  to  him 
with  true  wifely  devotion,  until  sorrow  and  sickness 
bore  her  from  his  arms  to  the  "  distant  Aiden." 
Shortly  after  this  marriage  Poe  removed  to  New  York 
and  there  began  a  literary  career  strangely  chequered — 
but  that  gave  him  in  the  end  a  world-wide  reputation. 
At  this  point  we  drop  the  narrative  and  proceed  to  dis- 
cuss him  under  the  three-fold  aspect  of  Romancist,  Critic 
and  Poet. 

America  has  produced  no  such  story  writer  as  Edgar 
Allan  Poe.  There  have  been  single  examples  of  great 
excellence,  such  as  The  Spy  of  Cooper,  the  George 
Balcombe  of  Beverly  Tucker,  the  Richard  Hurdis  of 
Simms,  the  Scarlet  Letter  of  Hawthorne,  and  perhaps 
a  dozen  others  of  equal  merit,  but  the  A.  Gordon  Pym 
of  Poe,  which  went  through  several  English  editions, 
the  shorter  tales  of  the  "  Grotesque  and  Arabesque," 
and  many  others  of  a  later  date  gave  him  pre-eminence 
as  a  raconteur  at  home  and  abroad,  and  resulted  in  the 
founding  of  a  new  school  of  fiction  on  both  continents. 

From  the  general  mass  of  these  stories  we  select  The 
Gold  Bug,  the  Murders  of  the  Rue  Morgue  and  Ligeia, 
for  special  consideration.  "The  Gold  Bug"  was  a 
prize  tale  based  upon  the  tradition  of  Captain  Kyd  and 
his  buried  treasures.  That  bold  buccaneer  with  his 
marvelous  adventures  was  for  long  years  the  theme  of 
newspaper  scribblement,  and  of  fireside  gossip  along 
the  Atlantic  slope  just  as  Lafitte  and  his  piratical  exploits 


38  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

were  afterwards  a  topic  of  discussion  along  the  Gulf  coast. 
It  was  quite  natural  therefore,  that  this  story  should  win 
thousands  of  readers  at  a  time  when  the  three  R's  were 
little  appreciated  and  less  practiced  than  in  this  age  of 
common  schools.  We  distinctly  remember,  when  a 
boy,  that  we  invested  all  our  pocket  money  in  its  pur- 
chase, and  that  we  read  it  with  a  zest,  little  if  any,  short 
of  our  interest  in  the  strange  wayfaring  of  Lemuel 
Gulliver.  After  the  lapse  of  nearly  fifty  years  we  read 
it  again  and  again  with  a  relish  that  time  has  not  sensibly 
abated.  Indeed  as  judged  by  the  tone  of  contemporary 
criticism,  American  and  European,  it  still  holds  its  place 
as  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  the  world's  romance.  In 
this  story  Poe  displays  that  unrivalled  analytic  faculty, 
which  characterized  his  other  tales,  of  "William  Wil- 
son" and  that  more  striking  story,  "The  Fall  of  the 
House  of  Usher."  In  this  he  distanced  all  competitors 
amongst  American  tale  writers,  not  one  of  whom 
deserved  to  be  named  in  the  same  breath  with  the  single 
exception  of  Nathaniel  Hawthorne.  Even  Hawthorne's 
best  tales,  including  Wakefield,  probably  his  very  best, 
were  tame  and  uneventful  in  comparison. 
Long  after  the  doggerel  refrain 

"  My  name  was  Captain  Kyd 
As  I  sailed,  as  I  sailed," 

has  faded  from  the  popular  memory,  will  the  "Gold 
Bug"  be  read  with  intense  interest  by  successive  gene- 
rations amongst  the  civilized  peoples  of  the  world  ! 

Another  story  that  Poe   published    about  the  same 
time  produced  a  wider  and  profounder  interest.      We 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  39 

refer  to  the  "  Murders  of  the  Rue  Morgue."  In  the 
presence  of  this  mysterious  wholesale  butchery  the 
crime  of  Eugene  Aram,  and  the  midnight  murder  of 
Crowinshield  "pale  their  ineffectual  fires."  The  sen- 
sation of  horror  is  greatly  heightened  by  the  discovery 
that  the  sole  factor  in  this  murderous  work  was  a  run- 
away Ourang'who  eloped  with  his  master's  razor. 

Its  publication  was  hailed  with  delight  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic.  It  was  immediately  translated  into  a 
number  of  foreign  languages,  and  in  France  it  received 
.the  warm  endorsement  of  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes. 

In  the  construction  of  the  plot  and  the  unfolding  of 
the  mystery  Poe  exhibited  that  wonderful  "  ratioci- 
native  process"  which  Lowell  spoke  of  by  contradiction 
in  terms  as  "  innate  experiences,"  but  which  is  better 
expressed  by  the  old  fashioned  word,  Genius.  It  was, 
indeed,  that  peculiar  intuition  which  enabled  Poe  to 
forecast  the  plot  and  denouement  ol  "  Barnaby  Rudge," 
while  as  yet  only  the  initial  chapters  had  been  pub- 
lished. This  achievement  drew  from  Dickens  a  letter 
of  acknowledgment;  which  was  highly  complimentary 
to  the  American  story  writer. 

A  greater  production  than  either  of  the  two  just  no- 
ticed was  "Ligeia,"  which  Poe  always  esteemed  his 
best  literary  work  in  that  line.  Its  suggestion,  if  not  its 
inspiration,  as  he  always  insisted,  came  from  a  dream. 
Like  the  fabled  "  Vision  of  Mirza, "  which  Addison  de- 
scribes in  one  of  the  earlier  numbers  of  The  Spectator, 
or  Coleridge's  opiate  dream  of  Kubla  Khan — it  was  one 
ot  those  singular  fancies  "begot  'twixt  sleeping  and 


4O  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

waking,"  which  has  always  been  a  perplexity  to  psy- 
chologists. Ingram  says  that  the  theme  of  "Ligeia" 
was  well  suited  "  to  the  dream  haunted  brain  of  Poe, 
and  in  his  exposition  of  the  thoughts  suggested  by  its 
application,  he  has  been  more  than  usually  successful." 
Even  Richardson  admits  that  in  the  post  mortem  expe- 
riences that  it  relates  "  there  is  a  stolid,  fixity  of  faith 
that  rises  pet  aspera  ad  astra,  and  at  length  exclaims, 
'  Eureka  ! '  all  is  life — life — life  within  life — the  lesser  life 
within  the  greater,  and  all  within  the  spirit  Divine." 

This  element  of  supernaturalism  is  a  distinctive  fea- 
ture of  Poe's  prose  and  poetry,  and  is  one  of  their  chief 
excellencies  ;  indeed,  we  may  add,  the  prime  secret  of 
their  attractiveness. 

Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  prose  tales  of  Poe 
will  readily  recall  a  number  of  his  stories  like  "The 
Pit  and  the  Pendulum,"  the  "Fall  of  the  House  of 
•Usher,"  "The  Facts  in  the  case  of  M.  Valdemar,  " 
"The  MS  Found  in  a  Bottle,"  etc.,  etc.,  that  are 
even  more  interesting  to  the  average  reader  than  the 
three  already  considered. 

Individually,  we  have  been  more  absorbed  and  at 
times  thrilled  by  the  narrative  of  A.  Gordon  Pym, 
than  by  anything  in  the  shape  of  a  tale  that  has  come 
from  the  pen  of  Poe.  It  occupies  a  broader  field  than 
Robinson  Crusoe,  has  more  startling  developments, 
and  is  not  less  noted  for  its  verisimilitude.  This  last 
feature  is  so  perfect  that  thousands  are  half  persuaded 
that  it  is  a  veritable  history  of  naval  adventures  in  the 
Antarctic  ocean. 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  4! 

To  bolster  up  the  specious  theory  that  Poe  was 
incapable  of  a  long  sustained  effort,  Richardson  in  his 
intensely  Yankee  History  of  American  Literature,  pro- 
nounces this  story  along  with  his  unfinished  Tragedy  of 
Politian  a  manifest  failure.  Not  so  is  it  regarded  in 
Europe,  nor  in  this  country  by  capable  and  conscientious 
critics.  For  ourself  we  are  at  a  loss  to  understand  in 
what  notable  respect  it  is  at  all  inferior  to  the  great  work 
of  Defoe. 

While  much  of  the  literary  work  of  Poe  is  fragment- 
ary, there  is  no  reason  to  infer  his  incapacity  for  more 
elaborate  and  extended  effort.  Those  who  are  familiar 
with  the  details  of  his  life  readily  understand  that  this 
habit  was  largely  the  result  of  necessity  rather  than  the 
product  of  deliberate  choice.  To  what  extent  our  litera- 
ture has  suffered  from  this  cause  is  a  matter  of  mere 
conjecture.  It  is  as  well  at  this  point  as  elsewhere,  to 
say  that  Griswold,  who  managed  by  trick  or  otherwise 
to  obtain  possession  of  his  posthumous  papers,  is  sus- 
pected of  suppressing  some  of  these  writings.  Amongst 
them  was  a  finished  manuscript  entitled,  "Phases  ot 
American  Literature,"  which  if  prepared  with  Poe's 
usual  painstaking  industry,  would  have  been  of  immense 
value.  So  that  Griswold  is  not  only  chargeable  with  the 
suggestio  falsi  but  with  the  supptessio  veri  as  well. 

Richardson,  in  his  History  of  American  Literature, 
has  the  candor  to  place  Poe  in  the  front  rank  of  Ameri- 
can romancists,  and  denies  that  either  Brockden  Brown, 
Cooper  or  Paulding  are  entitled  to  the  same  rank  with 
him  and  Hawthorne.  This  concession  from  a  New 


42  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

England  source  is  a  weighty  testimony  to  the  extraor- 
dinary merits  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe  as  a  master  of  fictive 
literature. 

AS  A  CRITIC. 

No  American,  if  indeed  any  English  reviewer  has 
equalled  Poe  as  a  critic.  What  Francis  Jeffries  did  for 
English  literature,  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  with  fewer  facili- 
ties, accomplished  for  American  literature,  with  this 
notable  difference,  that  Jeffries  was  utterly  lacking  in 
constructive  ability  as  to  poetry,  and,  as  a  consequence, 
was  occasionally  wide  of  the  mark.  That  pestilent  fel- 
low, R.  H.  Stoddard,  whom  Poe  threatened  with  cor- 
poreal punishment  lor  his  impertinence,  asserts  that 
Poe  was  not  a  critic,  whereas  the  London  Quarterly 
Review  says  that  he  was  ' '  potentially  the  greatest  critic 
that  ever  lived,"  having  an  ear  for  rhythm  unmatched 
in  all  the  ages. 

This  special  faculty  Poe  first  developed  in  the  pages 
of  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger.  His  review  of 
"  Norman  Leslie,"  and  his  exposure  of  the  geographical 
blunders  and  historical  fallacies  of  "Stephens'  Travels 
in  Egypt,  Arabia  Petrea  and  Palestine,"  constituted  an 
era  in  American  review  writing.  It  revealed  the  fact 
that  a  veritable  "  Daniel  had  come  to  judgment,"  who 
had  both  capacity  and  courage,  who  was  neither  to  be 
purchased  by  publishers'  bribes  nor  cajoled  by  the 
blandishments  of  authors.  Prof.  Anthon  and  others, 
proprietors  of  the  New  York  Revieiv,  made  haste  to 
secure  his  services  in  the  critical  department  of  that 
publication. 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  43 

Poe's  advent  as  a  critic  was  »ot  an  hour  too  soon. 
The  country  was  flooded  with  literary  trash,  and  his 
marvelous  insight  and  outlook  made  him  a  terror  to 
evil-doers  in  every  department  of  literature.  Especially 
was  he  dreaded  and  denounced  by  poets  of  the  "  Laura 
Matilda"  school,  who  figured  in  the  "  Annuals  "  then 
so  much  in  vogue.  People  who  had  gone  into  ecstacies 
over  the  pious  platitudes  of  Mrs.  Sigourney,  the  prin- 
cipal of  the  blue  stocking  sisterhood,  with  headquarters 
under  the  ancestral  elms  of  New  Haven,  were  shocked 
by  his  critical  blasphemies  The  "  turn-down-shirt- 
collarness  "  of  Boston  was  amazed  at  his  iconoclastic 
fury.  The  bare-faced  imitations,  if  not  downright  pla- 
giarisms, of  Longfellow,  enshrined  in  gilt-edged  and 
morocco-bound  octavos,  were  dragged  into  the  light. 
Even  Hawthorne,  despite  his  "  Scarlet  Letter"  and 
"  House  of  the  Seven  Gables,"  was  made  to  do  penance 
for  the  platitudes  of  his  "Twice  Told  Tales."  As  for 
that  larger  class  who  were  represented  by  the  lyrical 
gush  of  Halleck's  "  Marco  Bozzaris, "  and  the  epic  bom- 
bast of  Seba  Smith's  "  Powhatan,"  they  were  ground 
to  impalpable  powder  between  the  upper  and  nether 
millstones.  At  the  same  time  Poe  recognized  the 
remarkable  gifts  of  Margaret  Fuller,  and  gave  the  New 
England  litetati  some  adequate  conception  of  the  in- 
trinsic merits  of  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning. 

These  conscientious  but  caustic  criticisms  gave  mortal 
offense  to  Griswold,  and  like  literary  pretenders.  But 
the  critical  work  of  Poe  which  produced  the  greatest 
sensation  was  a  series  of  articles  which  he  contributed 


44  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

to  Godey's  Lady's  Book,  entitled  "The  Literati  of 
New  York."  They  caused  a  flutter,  only  equaled  by 
Dickens'  Notes  on  America.  Mr.  Godey,  the  publisher, 
was  menaced  with  withdrawal  of  patronage  and  libel 
suits  without  number.  But  he  had  the  manliness  to 
stand  by  his  contributor.  His  circulation  was  greatly 
enlarged  because  of  these  obnoxious  criticisms,  and  the 
libel  suits  never  materialized.  Thomas  Dunn  English 
nee  Brown,  a  Grub  street  writer,  was  highly  indignant 
because  Poe  twitted  him  with  his  utter  ignorance  of 
English  grammar.  His  towering  passion  made  him 
the  butt  of  the  clubs  and  coffee  houses,  and  his  reply  to 
the  critic  cost  him  several  hundred  dollars  because  of  its 
slanderous  aspersions. 

James  Russell  Lowell,  an  author  of  fair  reputation 
undertook  a  counter-blast  in  "A  Fable  for  Critics," 
which  caused  Mr.  Poe,  while  conceding  his  general 
literary  ability,  to  point  out  his  inexcusable  ignorance 
of  the  elementary  rules  of  poetry  particularly  as  they 
pertain  to  rhythm. 

As  for  the  lesser  deities  of  our  American  Parnassus, 
Wm  Ellery  Channing,  Jr.,  Cornelius  Matthews,  W.  W. 
Lord,  Rufus  Dawes,  Lewis  Gaylord  Clark  and  other 
inanities,  who  may  be  grouped  under  the  head  of 
"  Quacks  of  Helicon,"  he  relegated  them  to  Coventry. 

The  severest  of  these  critical  papers  was  one  devoted 
to  Thomas  Ward,  who  sported  the  pseudonym  of 
"  Flaccus. "  We  offer  it  as  a  specimen  brick.  Poe  is 
discussing  a  poem  entitled  "The  Great  Descender," 
in  which  is  commemorated  "Sam  Patch,"  who  ended  a 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  45 

worthless  career  by  a  jumping  feat,  we  forget  whether 
at  the  Niagara  or  Passaic  Falls.  "We  never  could 
understand,"  says  Poe,  "  what  pleasure  men  of  talent 
can  take  in  concocting  elaborate  doggerel  of  this  order. 
Least  of  all  can  we  comprehend  why,  having  perpetrated 
the  atrocity,  they  should  lay  it  at  the  door  of  the  muse. 
We  are,  moreover,  at  a  loss  to  know  by  what  right, 
human  or  divine,  twddale  of  this  character  is  intruded 
into  a  collection  of  what  professes  to  be  poetry.  Mr. 
Ward  is  pleased  to  denominate  Mr.  Patch  a  '  martyr  of 
science.'  That  Mr  Patch  was  a  genius,  we  do  not 
doubt ;  so  is  Mr.  Ward.  But  the  science  displayed  in 
jumping  down  the  falls  is  a  point  above  us.  There 
might  have  been  some  science  in  jumping  up. "  Poe 
says  that,  even  considered  as  a  rhymed  jeu  d '  esprit,  it 
is  a  wretched  failure. 

"  Mr.  Ward,"  continues  Poe,    "is  constantly  talking 
about   '  thunder  guns/    '  thunder  trumpets  '  and    '  thun- 
der shrieks.'      He  has  a  bad  habit,   too,   of  styling  an 
eye  '  a  weeper, '  as,  for  example,  at  page  208  : 
'  Oh,  curl  in  smiles  that  mouth  again, 
And  wipe  that  weeper  dry. ' 

Somewhere  else  he  calls  two  tears  ' '  two  sparklers  " 
very  much  in  the  style  of  Mr.  Richard  Swiveller,  who 
was  fond  of  denominating  Madeira  '  'the  rosy. "  Farther 
on  he  adds:  "Who  calls  Mr.  Ward  a  Poet?  He  is  a 
third  rate  or  ninety-ninth  rate  poetaster.  He  is  a  gentle- 
man of  elegant  leisure,  and  gentlemen  of  elegant  leisure 
are  for  the  most  part  neither  men,  women  nor  Harriet 
Martineaus. " 


46  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

It  will  be  perceived  that  as  a  Reviewer,  Mr.  Poe  was 
in  the  parlance  of  the  prize  ring  "a  hard  hitter."  But 
he  had  too  much  of  the  Cavalier  spirit  <4to  strike  below 
the  belt."  No  English  or  American  Critic  was  more 
appreciative  of  real  merit,  and  when  possible  he  always 
gave  the  seeming  transgressor  the  benefit  of  the  doubt. 

Indeed  his  critical  estimates  were  largely  tempered 
with  mercy.  Witness  his  statement,  that  Beverly 
Tucker's  "George  Balcombe,"  was  the  greatest  Ameri- 
can-novel, and  his  striking  leniency  towards  several  of 
his  bitterest  personal  enemies,  and  most  unscrupulous 
maligners. 

Some  devout  believer  in  special  Providence  has  said, 
that  whenever  a  man  is  needed  for  some  special  work 
he  is  sure  to  be  forthcoming.  History,  both  sacred 
and  profane,  we  think  justifies  this  statement.  But 
whether  it  be  fact  or  fancy  there  is  little  doubt,  as  we 
have  before  intimated,  that  a  well  equipped  critic  like 
Poe  was  urgently  needed  at  the  close  of  the  first  forty 
years  of  the  present  century.  It  was  emphatically  as 
respects  literature  an  age  of  fudge  and  fustian  alike  in 
prose  and  verse.  Nor  does  it  admit  of  serious  doubt 
that  whatever  the  merit,  and  it  is  at  least  considerable, 
of  our  current  literature,  no  little  of  it  is  due  to  the 
directness  and  thoroughness  of  Poe's  criticism  of  his 
contemporaries.  He  accomplished  a  reformation  in 
American  literature  the  nobler  issues  and  richer  fruits 
of  which  we  have  not  yet  fully  realized.  The  Knicker- 
bocker of  that  day  was  the  patron  of  common-place,  and 
the  North  American  Review  of  that  date  was  run  in  the 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  47 

interest  of  a  literary  clique,  selfish  and  partisan  to  a 
degree  well  nigh  incredible.  We  do  not  claim  that  Poe 
was  either  infallible  or  impeccable,  lor  he  had  not  less 
than  other  illustrious  writers  his  human  weaknesses  and 
limitations.  But  this  we  are  warranted  in  saying,  that 
by  precept  and  example  he  has  indicated  the  way  by 
which  American  literature  can  free  itself  from  colonial 
vassalage  and  attain  as  it  has  already  done,  in  part,  a 
self-respecting  literary  independence.  Nor  otherwise 
may  we  hope  ever  to  realize 

"The  glory  that  was  Greece 
And  the  grandeur  that  was  Rome." 

By  way  of  addendum  to  this  sketch  of  Poe  as  a  critic 
we  will  farther  say,  that  the  much  talked  of  International 
Copyright  law  will  inure  more  to  the  emolument  of 
American  Publishers  and  native  authors  than  to  the 
advantage  of  the  reading  public.  This  policy  is  another 
phase  of  the  Protectionist  theory  which  deserves  to  be 
scouted  as  legalized  robbery  It  will  result,  in  so  far  as 
it  has  any  practical  effect,  in  loading  our  library  shelves 
with  inferior  wares,  and  thereby  inducing  a  yet  greater 
depravation  of  the  popular  taste. 

AS  A  POET. 

After  all,  the  permanent  renown  of  Poe  will  rest  chiefly 
not  on  his  eminent  ability  as  a  critic,  nor  yet  on  his 
matchless  skill  as  a  romancist.  A  century  hence  his 
masterly  critiques  will  be  well-nigh  forgotten  ;  a  few  of 
his  best  stories  will  be  still  read  with  the  same  interest 
that  we  now  read  the  Tom  Jones  of  Fielding,  or  the  Caleb 


48  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

Williams,  of  Godwin,  but  his  principal  poems  will  be 
of  perennial  interest,  because  they  are  in  themselves 
examples  of  perennial  beauty  and  striking  incarnations 
of  eternal  truth. 

The  entire  mass  of  his  poetry  is  not  large,  but  it  is, 
in  an  almost  unparalleled  degree,  superb  in  quality  as 
to  its  conception  and  thoroughly  artistic  as  to  its  execu- 
tion. To  compare  Poe  to  Longfellow  is  like  comparing 
"  Hyperion  to  a  Satyr  "  The  author  of  Hiawatha,  even 
if  the  poem  was  not  of  more  than  doubtful  originality, 
is  gradually  losing  his  hold,  except  upon  simpering 
school  girls  and  sentimental  under-graduates.  His 
Evangeline  and  a  very  few  of  his  shorter  poems  may 
linger,  but  the  meretricious  jingle  of  the  metrical  rhap- 
sody yclept  Hiawatha,  cannot  save  it  from  the  fate  of 
Barlow's  Columbiad  and  Trumbull's  McFingal.  On'the 
other  hand,  the  world  will,  as  the  years  go  by,  more 
and  more  recognize  the  truth  of  Victor  Hugo's  estimate 
when  he  says  that  Edgar  Allan  Poe  was  the  ' '  Prince  of 
American  literature." 

It  is  fortunate  that  Poe  found  time  in  the  intervals  of 
more  pressing  literary  work  to  prepare  his  thoughtful 
essays  on  "  The  Poetic  Principle, "  "The  Rationale  of 
Verse,"  and  on  the  "Philosophy  of  Composition." 
They  are  well  known  to  contain  some  peculiar  views  of 
the  writer  that  are  worthy  of  deep  consideration.  With 
the  greater  portion  of  these  views  we  have  no  quarrel. 
We  accept  his  postulate  that  a  didactic  poem,  such  as 
"Armstrong  on  Health,"  Pope's  "Essay  on  Man" 
and  Darwin's  "Zoonomia,"  is  palpably  absurd.  What 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  49 

is  said  by  these  several  authors  in  rhyme  and  rhythm 
might  be  better  expressed  in  plain  prose.  But  his  Pro- 
crustean limitations  of  all  poems  to  two  hundred  lines, 
or  even  a  half  hour's  reading,  is  a  rule  not  without  ob- 
vious exceptions.  A  definition  or  theory  of  poetry 
which  would  exclude  the  Iliad  or  Paradise  Lost  must 
be  radically  defective.  And  yet  there  is  more  in  this 
unique  suggestion  than  appears  at  a  mere  glance.  The 
Iliad  is  largely  a  compilation  made  by  Pisistratus  from 
the  minstrel  songs  of  wandering  Homeridae.  Homer 
is  not  less  a  mythical  personage  than  the  Keltic  Ossian. 
As  respects  Paradise  Lost,  if  we  except  the  three  first 
cantos  it  falls  immeasurably  below  the  L' Allegro,  II 
Penseroso,  Lycidas  and  Comus  of  the  same  immortal 
author. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  poems  of  greater  length 
than  can  be  disposed  of  in  a  half  hour's  reading  will  not 
be  tolerated  by  the  literary  public  of  the  next  century. 
Poe  in  this  matter  has  provoked  severe  criticism,  and 
yet  it  may  be  that,  as  in  other  instances,  he  is  simply 
anticipating  the  later  judgments  of  mankind. 

His  other  proposition,  that  beauty  is  the  great  end 
of  poetry,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  ethical  considerations, 
is  too  sweeping  a  generalization.  Mere  moralizing  is 
not  the  special  function  of  the  poet ;  that  belongs  prop- 
erly to  the  Priesthood,  Pagan  or  Christian  and  its  va- 
rious adjuncts.  And  yet  Poetry  and  her  sister  arts  of 
Sculpture,  Painting  and  Music  must  not  be  divorced 
from  the  idea  of  duty  and  righteousness. 

Poe  himself  admits  as  much  in  the  closing  paragraph 


5O  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

of  his  discussion  of  the  Poetic  Principle.  "  It  has  been 
my  purpose,"  he  says,  "  to  suggest  that  while  this  prin- 
ciple itself  is  strictly  and  simply  the  human  aspiration 
for  supernal  beauty,  the  manifestation  of  the  principle 
is  always  found  in  an  elevating  excitement  of  the  soul, 
quite  independent  of  that  passion  which  is  the  intoxica- 
tion of  the  heart,  or  of  truth,  which  is  the  satisfaction 
of  the  reason. " 

He  further  says  that,  in  regard  to  passion,  "its  ten- 
dency is  to  degrade  rather  than  elevate  the  soul.  Love, 
on  the  contrary — love,  the  true,  the  divine  Eros — the 
Uranian  as  distinguished  from  the  Dionean  Venus — is 
unquestionably  the  purest  and  truest  of  all  poetical 
themes." 

His  illustrations  from  Byron,  Longfellow,  Willis, 
Tennyson  and  others  are  apt  and  instructive 

His  other  essays  on  "  The  Rationale  of  Verse  "  and 
the  4<  Philosophy  of  Composition  "  relate  chiefly  to  the 
technique  of  versification,  and  may  be  profitably  studied 
by  all  who  are  interested  in  the  science  of  English 
verse.  We  need  only  remark  that  the  former  is  the 
work  of  a  master.  The  latter  purports  to  be  a  revela- 
tion of  the  genesis  of  "  The  Raven,"  to  which  we  shall 
make  incidental  allusion  when  we  come  to  the  analysis 
of  that  greatest  poem  of  modern  times. 

It  is  a  fact  that  with  the  exception  of  what  are  known 
as  his  Juvenile  Poems,  Poe  had  won  a  lasting  reputation 
as  a  raconteur  before  he  was  appreciated  as  a  Poet.  In 
order  of  time  the  "Gold  Bug-"  and  his  other  best  stories 


EDGAR    ALLAN    FOE.  5  I 

preceded  the  publication  of  his  great  master-pieces  of 
Poetry. 

His  earlier  poems,  it  is  true,  were  prophecies  of  his 
later  achievements.  Indeed  Lowell  speaks  of  them  as 
the  best  of  their  class,  and  Stoddard  describes  some  of 
them  as  absolutely  perfect.  The  lines  "To  Helen" 
"The  Coliseum,"  and  some  portions  of  Politian  and 
Al  Aaraaf,  are  certainly  of  a  higher  order  than  any- 
thing then  known  in  American  poetry.  The  two  first 
named  especially,  were  worth  a  volume  of  such  com- 
monplace as  Bryant,  Halleck  and  Drake,  were  wont  to 
write.  But  his  later  poems  which  we  shall  presently 
consider  are  ' '  the  notes  of  the  Dying  Swan. ' '  It  was  not 
until  fate  had  done  its  worst,  and  there  lay  all  around 
him  the  wreck  of  blighted  hopes  and  blasted  fortunes, 
that  his  soul  was  wrought  to  its  highest  tension,  and  he 
was  uplifted  to  the  "highest  heaven  of  invention."  As 
he  stood 

"By  the  dark  tarn  of  Auber 
In  the  ghoul-haunted  woodland  of  Weir  " 

fronting   "a  legended  tomb"   with  the  simple  mono- 
gram—"  Ulalume." 

As  when  aforetime  in  "  the  dreary  midnight  "  of  his 
deepest  sorrow,  he  talked  gibberish  with  "the  un- 
gainly fowl"  as  erst  the  melancholy  Hamlet  with  the 
besmirched  grave  diggers.  At  such  times  as  these  he 
caught  more  than  glimpses  of  "  the  Dantean  and  Mil- 
tonic  vision  of  the  mighty  right  and  the  mighty  wrong," 
and  was  henceforth  admitted  to  the  "glorious  fellow- 


52  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

ship" — of  the  Homers  and  Shakespeares  and  Goethes  of 
all  the  ages. 

There  is  a  striking  difference  of  opinion  amongst  the 
ablest  critics  as  to  the  comparative  merits  of  these  later 
poems,  such  as  "  Annabel  Lee"  "The  Bells"  "For 
Annie" — "  Ulalume  "  and  "The  Raven."  We  have 
neither  space  nor  inclination  to  speak  of  any  but  the 
second  and  fifth  in  this  list. 

Critical  writers  of  no  mean  reputation,  regard  the 
first  two  in  the  list  as  Poe's  best  poems.  Without 
meaning  to  depreciate  them,  we  must  utterly  dissent 
from  this  estimate.  As  our  own  Hayne  has  said  in  a 
well-written  tribute  to  Poe  : 

"  With  sober  eye  and  pinions  furled 
The  sombre  Raven  roams  the  world." 

It  is  instinctively  associated  with  the  memory  of  Poe, 
and  has  been  read  and  admired  in  the  four  quarters  of 
the  globe. 

It  has  been  commented  upon  most  favorably  and  en- 
thusiastically by  such  poets  as  Tennyson  and  Swinburne, 
in  England  ;  by  Victor  Hugo  and  Lemaitre,  in  France. 
Germany  and  Spain  have  bestowed  upon  it  and  its  author 
their  meed  of  praise.  Boston  critics  characterize  it  as 
weird  and  incomprehensible.  Weird  it  unquestionably 
is  ;  so  is  the  Macbeth  of  Shakespeare,  and  the  Apoca- 
lypse of  St.  John,  but  for  a  critic  to  call  it  incompre- 
hensible in  a  depreciatory  sense,  is  simply  to  publish 
himself  an  ass. 

It  is  true  that  distinguished  writers  have  disagreed  as 
to  the  correct  interpretation  of  "  The  Raven."  So  like- 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  53 

wise  eminent  divines  have  given  variant  expositions  of 
the  7th  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  Are 
we,  therefore,  to  conclude  that  St.  Paul's  epistolary 
masterpiece  is  a  bundle  of  incongruities  ?  The  naked 
truth  is  that  all  great  products  of  human  genius,  as  well 
as  all  great  products  of  Divine  inspiration,  have  a  mani- 
fold significance.  No  two  observers  see  the  same  land- 
scape, nor  do  any  two  readers,  even  if  twin  brothers, 
get  the  same  teaching,  whether  from  parable  or  poem. 

"  The  Raven  "  has  a  history  that  is  highly  suggestive 
of  its  meaning. 

A  European  writer  has  said  that  the  "  Raven  House  " 
will  be  remembered  as  long  as  the  house  in  which  De 
Lisle  wrote  the  Marseillaise  hymn.  It  was  situated  on 
the  Bloomingdale  road  at  a  point  then  secluded,  but 
now  within  the  corporate  limits  of  New  York.  Poe 
had  engaged  rooms  in  a  suburban  boarding  house, 
hoping  that  rest  and  quietude  would  restore  the  failing 
health  of  his  cherished  "Lenore."  His  expectations 
were  disappointed.  This  frail  child-wife  steadily  de- 
clined, and  one  stormy  night,  in  "  bleak  December," 
he  saw  her  pale,  pulseless,  and  for  a  time  breathless. 
He  touched  her  and  thought  her  dead.  At  this  sorrow- 
ful crisis  he  wrote  "The  Raven."  Contrary  to  his 
habit,  he  published  it  in  the  American  (Whig)  Review 
for  February,  1845,  under  the  pseudonym  of  "  Ouarles." 
His  purpose,  evidently,  was  to  keep  his  secret  alike 
from  friends  and  foes. 

This  was  not  merely  a  mischievous  aim  to  mystify  the 
multitude,  as  he  was  wont  at  times  to  do,  but  was  done 


54  LECTURES     AND     ESSAYS. 

because  he  esteemed  this  domestic  sorrow  as  sacred. 
With  a  similar  intent  he  afterwards  wrote  as  he  did  of 
the  artistic  construction  of  "The  Raven."  Laying  all 
that  aside  as  a  matter  of  secondary  importance,  we  come 
to  the  main  question,  What  is  the  central  idea  of  the 
poem  ?  We  reply  without  hesitancy,  it  is  the  question 
of  the  Ages.  It  is  not  the  subordinate  problem  of  Matt- 
lock,  Is  life  worth  living  ?  That  was  the  perplexity  of 
Hamlet,  and  in  some  degree  of  Cato  Uticensis,  in  the 
tragedy  of  Addison.  Instead,  it  is  the  question  of  Job, 
"  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ?  "  It  is  answered  by 
Job  in  that  rapturous  Eureka:  "I  know  that  my  Re- 
deemer liveth,  and  that  He  shall  stand  at  the  latter  day 
upon  the  earth,  and  though  after  my  skin  worms  de- 
stroy this  body,  yet  in  my  flesh  shall  I  see  God."  It  is 
a  slander  on  inspiration  to  say  that  in  this  Job  had  only 
reference  to  his  subsequent  reinstatement  in  his  former 
worldly  prosperity. 

Furthermore,  this  great  question  underlies  "The 
Tragedy  of  Faust."  I  lay  no  great  stress  on  the  fact 
that  Goethe,  in  the  Prologue  in  Heaven,  introduces  a 
colloquy  between  the  Lord  and  Mephistopheles,  almost 
identical  in  verbiage  with  that  between  God  and  Satan 
in  the  book  of  Job,  showing  most  clearly  that  the 
sacred  Drama  was  in  the  mind  of  the  sage  of  Weimar. 
The  musings  of  Faust  in  that  high  vaulted  Gothic 
chamber  are  not  unlike  the  sombre  meditations  of  Poe 
in  the  '  'Raven  Room. "  Faust  too  has  sought  '  'surcease 
from  sorrow  "  not  sorrow  for  a  "  lost  Lenore  "  but  for 
heart  weariness  "  in  many  a  quaint  and  curious  volume 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  55 

of  forgotten  lore."  He  has  mastered  Philosophy  and 
Medicine  and  Jurisprudence,  and  to  his  cost  Theology. 
And  now  he  is  heartily  disgusted,  and  concludes. 

"That  no  dog  in  such  a  fashion  would  longer  live." 

After  communion  with  the  earth  spirit  and  divers  collo- 
quies with  Wagner  and  others,  he  is  again  alone.  This 
time  he  Werther-like  is  intent  on  self-destruction.  Just 
as  he  puts  the  goblet  to  his  lips  brimful  of  a  deadly 
potion,  he  hears  from  a  neighboring  chapel  or  convent 
a  chorus  of  voices  singing  the  Easter  hymn — Christ  is 
risen.  It  is  like  balm  to  his  chafed  spirit.  The  suicidal 
purpose  is  instantly  foregone.  He  lives  to  a  hundred 
years.  Instead  of  going  straight  to  Hell,  according  to 
the  old  German  tradition  of  Dr.  Faustus,  he  is  at  last 
spirited  away  by  a  company  of  angels  to  Heaven  where 
he  is  ministered  to  by  the  once  cruelly  wronged  Gretchen. 
Once  more  this  great  question  is  deeply  pondered  by 
lone,  in  Sergeant  Talford's  more  recent  classical  drama. 
Indeed,  the  question  in  one  form  or  another,  pervades 
the  best  literature  of  the  world. 

We  recur  to  "The  Raven,"  where  this  question  is 
more  strikingly  dominant.  Not  as  a  quiet  undertone 
merely,  but  as  the  very  keynote  of  this  grand  poem. 

Poe,  as  Mrs.  Clemm  testifies,  was  habitually  impres- 
sible by  the  supernatural.  At  this  juncture  he  seemed 
in  the  very  presence  of  death  ;  and  no  doubt,  in  a  higher 
sense  than  the  German  Faust  or  the  Greek  lone,  he  was 
nervously  grappling  with  this  problem  of  eternal  destiny. 

We,  of  course,  are  not  unaware  that  in  his  "Philoso- 
phy of  Composition  "  he  expressly  states  that  the  thesis 


56  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

of  the  poem  is  ' '  unending  sorrow. "  It  is  at  least  doubt- 
ful whether  the  whole  story  of  the  genesis  of  "The 
Raven,"  as  related  in  that  paper,  is  not  a  studied  mys- 
tification. In  this  opinion  we  are  not  singular,  very 
many — perhaps  a  majority — of  writers  only  conceding 
the  substantial  truthfulness  of  that  document. 

It  is  a  truism  that  most  men  "have  builded  wiser 
than  they  knew. "  The  old  Hebrew  Prophets  could  not 
always  interpret  their  own  message. 

We  have  referred  to  Poe's  special  environment  at  the 
time  of  its  production.  The  clearest  conception  of  this 
may  be  obtained  from  the  masterful  illustrations  of 
Gustave  Dore  and  a  careful  study  of  the  poem. 

Knowing  the  exquisite  nervous  organism  of  the  great 
poet,  we  are  not  surprised  that  he  was  "filled  with  fan- 
tastic terrors  "by  "  the  rustling  of  the  purple  curtain." 
It  was  not  the  first  or  the  last  time  that  Poe  stood  in 
the  border-land  ot  emotional  insanity.  Nor  is  the  rap- 
ping at  his  chamber  door,  and  the  later  tapping  at  his 
window  lattice,  other  than  his  own  weird  fancies.  These 
experiences  of  a  "sorrow-laden  soul,"  coupled  with  an 
intense  imaginative  faculty,  are  essentially  identical  with 
the  "  knockings  in  Macbeth  "  and  the  "  air-drawn  dag- 
ger "  that  shook  the  strong  nerves  of  the  Thane  of 
Cawdor  when  he  moved  towards  the  chamber  of  Duncan. 

One  of  the  best  of  Dore's  illustrations  is  of  that  scene 
where,  having  partially  rallied  from  his  distraught  con- 
dition, he  throws  the  door  wide  open,  and  peering  into 
the  dismal  outer  darkness,  speaks  only  "the  whispered 
word  Lenore."  His  attitude,  his  upraised  hands,  his 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  57 

wild  stare  into  that  night  of  storm,  sheds  a  flood  of  tene- 
brific  light  on  the  tragic  situation.  Brooding  over  the 
loss  of  his  wife,  which  then  seemed  imminent — the 
question  of  immortality  is  uppermost  in  his  thoughts. 
How  wildly  plaintive  is  his  appeal  to  the  "  grim  and 
ghastly  Raven  "  perched  upon  the  bust  of  Pallas,  just 
above  his  chamber  door.  Tell  me — tell  me  "is  there 
balm  in  Gilead"  to  soothe  and  heal  this  else  immedicable 
woe?  In  the  next  stanza  the  question  of  reunion  in 
Heaven  is  brought  forward  with  the  tremendous  adju- 
ration : 

"  By  the  Heaven  that  bends  above  us — by  that  God  we  both 

adore — 

Tell  this  soul  with  sorrow  laden,  if,  within  the  distant  Aiden 
It  shall  clasp  a  sainted  maiden  whom  the  Angels  name 

Lenore — 
Clasp  a  rare  and  radiant   maiden    whom  the   Angels  name 

Lenore  ? 

Quoth  the  Raven,  '  Nevermore  ! ' ' 

This  reply  instantly  drives  him  to  frenzy,  and  up- 
starting with  a  shriek  of  agony,  he  rejoins  : 

"Get  thee  back  into  the  tempest  and  the  Night's  Plutonian 

shore. 
Leave  no  black   plume  as  a  token  of  the  lie  thy  soul  hath 

spoken." 

To  our  mind  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  it  was  this 
"  black  lie  "  that  lay  like  a  mighty  millstone  on  his 
heart  that  was  suggestive  of  the  despairing  outcry  of  the 
next  stanza : 


58  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

"  And  my  soul  from  out  that  shadow  that  lies  floating  on  the 

floor, 
Shall  be  lifted — nevermore  ! " 

This,  we  confess,  gives  a  coloring  of  truth  to  the  state- 
ment that  "The  Raven  "  is  a  type  of  unending  sorrow. 
But  this  terrible  revulsion  of  feeling  ought  not  and  can 
not  hide  from  our  view  the  fact  that  the  poet's  intui- 
tions challenged  and  spurned  the  refrain  of  that  ' '  shorn 
and  shaven"  prophet  —  whether  "bird  or  devil" — 
perched  above  his  chamber  door.  At  the  worst  this 
despair  was  but  a  momentary  eclipse  of  faith. 

Elsewhere  he  realizes  that  this  same  Lenore  is  lifted 
far  above  the  mists  of  the  earth-life : 

"  From  grief  and  groan  to  a  golden  throne  beside  the  King 
of  Heaven." 

Similar  expressions  of  his  belief  in  the  life  everlasting 
may  be  found  in  his  lines  "To  one  in  Paradise,"  "Anna- 
bel Lee,"  and  in  many  of  his  Prose  writings.  Nothing 
can  be  clearer  than  that  he  was  neither  a  Materialist  nor 
a  Pessimist. 

That  our  interpretation  of  "  The  Raven  "  will  be  con- 
troverted we  expect  mainly,  if  not  exclusively,  for  the 
reason  that  in  his  "Philosophy  of  Composition"  he 
himself  says,  that  it  is  emblematic  of  ' '  mournful  and 
never-ending  remembrance."  However  interpreted, 
and  in  regard  to  that  we  are  not  deeply  concerned,  it 
will  be  evermore  reckoned  as  the  great  American  Poem. 

Having  devoted  so  much  space  to  its  consideration, 
we  shall  barely  refer  to  his  next  greatest  poem,  "The 
Bells." 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  59 

This  was  one  of  the  latest,  as  well  as  best  produc- 
tions of  his  genius.  In  its  earliest  form  it  consisted  of 
but  eighteen  lines,  but  it  was  revised,  and  afterwards 
expanded  to  its  existing  proportions.  All  the  critics 
regarded  it  as  a  marvel  of  rhythmical  skill,  and  like  "The 
Raven  "  as  thoroughly  unique  as  it  is  original.  It  bears 
the  unmistakable  imprint  of  its  great  author.  A  pro- 
fessional elocutionist  of  more  than  local  reputation 
assured  us  that  no  man  in  America  could  properly 
render  "The  Bells."  It  would  require  a  greater  diversity 
of  gifts  than  Poe  himself  possessed,  to  bring  out  all  of 
its  hidden  meanings  and  its  greater  mystic  beauties. 
And  yet  perhaps,  none  of  the  poems  of  Poe  is  more 
frequently  recited  on  the  stage  and  platform.  Nor  any  of 
them,  it  may  be,  more  heartily  enjoyed  and  more  vocifer- 
ously applauded. 

An  analysis  of  it  would  carry  us  far  beyond  our  allotted 
limits.  In  summing  up  with  reference  to  the  merits  of 
Edgar  Allan  Poe  as  a  Poet,  we  cannot  convey  a  better 
idea  of  his  present  status  in  the  literary  world  than  to 
refer  to  the  estimate  of  Mr.  Jules  Lemaitre,  a  distin- 
guished French  writer.  Lemaitre,  in  his  "Dialogues 
of  the  Dead,"  does  not  hesitate  to  class  him  with 
Plato  and  Shakspeare,  and  on  some  lines  to  assign  him 
a  higher  position  than  the  great  English  dramatist. 
Richardson,  who  in  his  late  utterly  partisan  History  of 
American  Literature  rarely  misses  an  opportunity  to 
disparage  Poe,  alleges  that  the  extravagant  admiration 
of  the  French  people  for  the  author  of  "  The  Raven  " 
is  a  taste  national  rather  than  catholic.  So  far  is  this 


6O  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

from  being  true,  that  the  best  English  authorities  pro- 
nounce him  ' '  the  greatest  American  genius. "  Germany 
and  Spain  and  Italy  have  already  ratified  this  decision. 
When  the  Boston  literary  clique  shall  have  recovered 
from  Poe's  scathing  strictures  on  "Longfellow  and 
Other  Plagiarists,"  New  England,  too,  will  help  to 
swell  the  general  acclaim,  and  then  the  whole  country 
will  accept  the  statement  of  Victor  Hugo,  already 
quoted,  that  POE  is  the  PRINCE  OF  AMERICAN  LITERA- 
TURE. 

AS    A    MAN. 

Baudeliere,  the  French  poet,  says  in  substance  of 
Edgar  Allan  Poe,  that  he  seemed  an  imperial  wanderer 
from  some  lost  Atlantis,  whose  lot  was  strangely  cast 
in  "  bleak  and  desolate  America."  He  wras  clearly  out 
of  harmony  with  his  Providential  environment.  Amer- 
ican literature  was  at  that  period,  if  not  strictly  non- 
existent, at  least  in  a  chrysalis  condition.  There  was 
neither  a  Maecenas  to  encourage  by  his  munificence,  nor 
a  literary  constituency  sufficient  to  sustain  professional 
authorship  by  its  patronage.  His  first  important  literary 
engagement,  as  previously  stated,  was  the  editorship  of 
the  Southern  Literary  Messenger.  For  this  he  received 
a  salary  of  five  hundred  dollars,  a  yearly  income  hardly 
equal  to  the  earnings  of  a  second-class  house  carpenter. 
At  a  later  period  he  received  better  wages,  but  never 
after  his  marriage  did  his  utmost  exertions  provide 
otherwise  than  scantily  for  "  Diddie  "  and  "  Muddie," 
his  invalid  wife  and  his  infirm  mother-ui-law.  As  a  con- 
sequence he  was  always  financially  straitened,  and  in 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  6 1 

some  emergencies  he,  like  Jaffier  in  ' '  Venice  Preserved, " 
was  forced  to  eat  the  bitter  bread  of  dependence.  And 
yet  under  this  terrible  stress  he  was  scrupulously  honest 
and  exact,  even  to  a  farthing,  in  his  business  transac- 
tions. We,  in  common  with  all  the  world,  are  apprised 
that  Griswold  impeached  his  business  integrity.  But 
Graham,  Willis  and  Clarke,  with  whom  he  was  most 
intimately  associated,  bear  witness  to  his  unswerving 
fidelity  to  his  engagements. 

For  months  he  was  not  merely  contented  to  do  the 
hack-work  of  the  editorial  office  of  the  New  York  Mirror, 
but  he  did  it  cheerfully.  Reared  from  his  childhood  in 
the  midst  of  luxury  in  the  family  of  his  god-father,  Mr. 
Allan,  of  Richmond,  Va.,  and  then  disowned  and  dis- 
inherited, he  was  seldom  known  to  indulge  in  fruitless 
repinings.  Yet  his  sad  experiences,  chiefly  the  death 
of  the  loved  Lenore,  gave,  if  not  a  pessimistic  tinge  at 
heart,  a  mournful  undertone  to  some  of  his  best  poems. 

Physically,  he  was  not  large,  but  singularly  athletic. 
His  forehead  was  lofty  and  his  side-head  well  developed 
in  the  region  of  ideality.  His  eyes  were  large  and  lus- 
trous. His  dress  was  scrupulously  neat,  and  his  whole 
bearing  graceful  and  dignified.  Indeed,  he  was  as 
courtly  as  Chesterfield  in  manner,  and  as  knightly  in 
spirit  as  Sir  Philip  Sydney,  on  the  field  of  Zutphen.  In 
the  domestic  sphere,  he  was  womanly  in  tenderness 
and  devotedness,  not  only  to  his  wife,  but  to  his  mother- 
in-law.  In  social  life  his  Norman  blood  betrayed  itself 
in  frankness  of  speech  and  suavity  of  manner.  A  dis- 
tinguished female  personage  has  said,  that  as  a  conver- 


62  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

sationalist,  he  had  no  peer  amongst  his  contemporaries. 
Griswold,  himself  confesses,  that  at  times  he  spake  with 
an  eloquence  that  was  "  supra-mortal."  He  was  not  a 
Monologist  as  was  Coleridge,  nor  a  Pedant  as  was  some- 
times the  the  "  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  table."  Nor 
did  he  indulge  in  censoriousness  like  Sam  Johnson,  or 
Walter  Savage  Landor.  His  conversation  seemed  unpre- 
meditated and  was  characterized  by  an  avoidance  of  all 
that  might  mar  "the  general  joy"  of  the  table  or  the 
fireside. 

The  slanderous  allegations  of  Griswold,  which  were 
reproduced  in  the  January  Lippincott,  are  a  series  of 
Munchausenisms.  Poe's  later  biographers,  as  Ingram, 
Gill,  Miss  Rice  and  James  Wood  Davidson,  have  taken 
up  these  charges  seriatim  and  disproved  them  by  a 
mass  of  testimony  absolutely  overwhelming.  He  was 
never  expelled  from  the  University  of  Virginia,  was  not 
dismissed  from  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger  for 
drunkenness,  but  resigned  to  accept  a  more  lucrative 
position  on  the  New  York  Review  \  never  quarelled  with 
Graham  or  Willis,  as  these  gentlemen  testify.  The 
men  and  women  who  knew  him  best  and  longest,  assert 
that  he  was  the  soul  of  honor,  having  all  the  instincts 
of  a  gentleman. 

After  all,  the  single  blur  on  his  escutcheon  was  his 
inebriety.  In  the  main  he  was  abstemious  in  eating  and 
drinking.  But  in  the  "latter  lonesome  days"  of  his 
chequered  life  he  indulged  in  wine-drinking  to  his  own 
personal  shame  and  detriment.  Months  usually  inter- 
vened between  these  paroxysms  of  debauchery.  That 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  63 

they  occurred  at  all  was  due  in  a  great  measure  to  his 
exceptional  susceptibility  to  the  influence  of  intoxicants. 
So  great  was  this  susceptibility  that  a  single  convivial 
glass  was  to  him  a  Circean  cup  that  embruted  him  and 
occasionally  almost  demonized  him.  A  clergyman  says 
that  he  knew  a  solitary  glass  of  ale  to  reverse  his  mental 
polarity  so  that,  whereas  before  drinking  he  was  talking 
with  inimitable  eloquence  on  literature  and  science,  in  a 
very  few  minutes  afterwards  he  was  reduced  to  the  verge 
of  drivelling  idiocy.  It  is  noteworthy  that  Poe  never 
resorted  to  artificial  stimulants  to  aid  him  in  his  literary 
labors.  Coleridge  and  De  Quincy,  the  former  a  whilom 
Unitarian  minister  and  the  latter  a  writer  of  Theological 
Essays,  had  recourse  to  opium  as  a  spur  to  their  flagging 
faculties.  Byron  was  indebted  for  much  of  his  inspira- 
tion to  Holland  gin.  Even  the  "  gentle  Elia "  was  a 
frequent  winebibber,  but  Poe  never  yielded  to  the 
temptation  unless  when  suffering  from  a  melancholia 
near  akin  to  downright  madness.  And  yet  for  this 
infirmity  he  was  hounded  to  his  grave  and  cruelly  de- 
famed after  his  death. 

In  all  this  we  do  not  mean  to  defend  Mr.  Poe  against 
fair-minded  criticism.  It  was  a  sad  spectacle — this  man 
of  transcendent  gifts  wallowing  at  intervals  in  a  ' '  sensual 
sty."  In  the  vast  range  of  literature  there  is  scarcely 
an  example  that  better  serves  to  point  a  moral,  or  to 
enforce  the  precept  of  Solomon  (himself  not  above 
reproach) — "  Look  not  upon  the  wine  when  it  is  red— 
for  at  last  it  biteth  like  a  serpent  and  stingeth  like  an 
adder."  If  in  this  matter  he  grievously  sinned,  "  most 


64  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

grievously  did  he  answer  it."  And  now  let  not  this 
frailty  be  remembered  in  his  epitaph  in  other  than  that 
Christly  spirit  which  said  to  the  adulterous  woman, 
"  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee — go  and  sin  no  more." 

As  with  reference  to  the  date  and  place  of  his  birth, 
so  likewise  somewhat  of  mystery  pertains  to  the  man- 
ner of  his  death.  The  old  story,  revived  by  Stoddard, 
of  a  protracted  debauch,  ending  in  mania  a  potu,  is 
exploded.  For  months  previous  to  his  death  he  had 
rigidly  abstained  from  drinking.  That  a  few  days  before 
that  event  he  had  been  guilty  of  excesses,  is  barely 
possible.  The  evidence  rather  favors  the  opinion  that 
the  denouement  of  this  blood-curdling  tragedy  was  an 
insane  paroxysm  aggravated  by  exposure,  followed  by 
nervous  exhaustion  and  congestion  of  the  brain.  Dr. 
Moran,  who  attended  him  in  his  last  hours,  proposed 
wine,  which  he  promptly  refused,  adding  those  memo- 
rable words,  "Its  horrors  who  can  tell!"  His  last 
coherent  utterance  was:  "All  is  over — Eddie  is  no 
more." 

Standing  in  thought  in  that  Hospital  ward  beside  his 
lifeless  form,  we  recall  the  lines  "For  Annie. " 

"  Thank  Heaven ! 
The  fever  called  living 
Is  conquered  at  last." 

If  any  proof  were  needed  of  the  old  dogma  of  total 
depravity,  it  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that  Griswold, 
whom  Stoddard  styles  Poe's  "life-long  friend"  two 
days  after  his  death,  wrote  in  the  columns  of  the  New 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  6$ 

York  Tribune,  a  most  scurrilous  attack  upon  the  dead 
Poet,  shielding  himself  behind  -a  rascally  "Anony- 
mosity. "  A  meanness  so  flagrant  that  a  European 
writer  indignantly  asked  if  there  was  no  law  in  America 
"  to  keep  curs  out  of  the  cemeteries."  The  revenges  of 
time  have  already  more  than  vindicated  the  memory  of 
Poe.  No  American  author  is  so  highly  esteemed  in  Eng- 
land, France  and  Germany,  the  great  centers  of  modern 
civilization.  When  a  few  years  ago  a  handsome  monu- 
ment was  erected  to  him,  at  Baltimore,  many  of  the 
greatest  living  writers  of  both  hemispheres  paid  their 
tribute  to  his  phenomenal  genius.  Amongst  them  was 
Tennyson,  the  venerable  English  Laureate,  who  was 
one  of  his  most  ardent  admirers. 

As  for  Griswold,  whose  Ghoulish  enmity  Poe  incurred 
by  his  caustic,  but  conscientious  review  of  the  "  Poets 
and  Poetry  of  America,"  he  has  long  since  found  his 
just  recompense  in  the  hearty  contempt  of  the  world  of 
letters.  One  eminent  author  has  likened  him  to  "mine 
ancient"  honest  lago.  We  prefer  rather  to  characterize 
him  as  the  Ananias  of  literary  biography.  Begging 
pardon  of  that  phenomenal  liar  of  the  mother  church  at 
Jerusalem  for  the  possible  wrong  done  him  by  the  sug- 
gestion, we  dismiss  Griswold  with  the  rabble  that  train 
after  him  with  the  ancient  words  of  exorcism,  Apage 
Satanos. 

Poe's  contemporaries,  and  some  who  long  survived 
him,  were  perplexed  about  his  religious  creed.  A  few 
have  doubted  if  he  had  any  creed,  at  least  of  the  Chris- 
tian sort. 


66  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  his  writings  any  satis- 
factory clue  to  his  individual  convictions  in  regard  to 
dogmatic  Theology.  Because  of  some  utterances  in  his 
"  Eureka  "  it  has  been  claimed  that  he  was  inclined  to 
the  Theosophy  of  the  East — say  some  sort  of  Brah- 
minism  or  Buddhism.  We  think  undue  stress  is  laid 
on  the  speculative  views  of  that  prose-poem.  Because 
he  accepts  the  Nebular  hypothesis,  and  then  makes  the 
Newtonian  law  of  gravitation  a  factor  in  the  destruction 
of  the  material  universe,  we  are  not  to  conclude  that  his 
Theology  was  essentially  anti-Christian.  There  are  some 
expressions  scattered  through  his  writings  which  would 
indicate  that  he  believed  in  the  impersonal  God  of  Pan- 
theism. By  parity  of  reasoning,  however,  we  might 
convict  Alexander  Pope,  who  was  a  staunch  Romanist, 
of  the  same  heresy.  Poe,  as  a  result  of  his  study  of 
Oriental  literature,  had  a  relish  for  Oriental  fancies,  but 
we  are  persuaded  that  in  his  calmer  and  better  moods 
he  was  not  the  doctrinal  reprobate  that  his  enemies 
alleged. 

The  whole  tenor  of  his  best  poetry  is  against  this 
hypothesis.  Besides,  it  we  have  not  utterly  failed  in 
our  interpretation  of  "  The  Raven;"  then  the  great 
dogmas  of  Immortality  and  Eternal  Judgment,  and  their 
correlative  truths,  met  with  his  hearty  acceptance. 
Most  assuredly  he  did  not  blaspheme  like  Shelley  in  his 
"  Notes  to  Queen  Mab, "  which  daring  impiety  Leigh 
Hunt  thought  was  avenged  by  the  "most  religious  sea " 
in  the  bay  of  Spezzia.  Nor  did  he  scoff  like  Byron  in 
his  "Cain,  a  Mystery"  and  in  "Don  Juan."  Still,  can- 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  6? 

dor  constrains  us  to  admit  that  Poe  was  in  a  painful 
degree  a  stranger  to  the  religious  sentiments  which  per- 
vade the  writings  of  Wordsworth  and  Tennyson,  and 
which  are  the  chief  charm  of  the  poetry  of  such  con- 
temporary American  bards  as  Bryant,  Whittier  and 
Longfellow. 

This  admission  will,  of  course,  be  fatal  with  that  class 
of  moralists  whom  Poe  describes  as  ' '  keeping  them- 
selves erect  by  perpetually  swallowing  pokers."  Some 
of  them  are  sincere,  but  not  a  few  of  them  are  of  the 
Pecksniff  tribe  whom  Hudibras  so  facetiously  character- 
izes. Men  who 

"  Compound  for  sins  they  are  inclined  to 
By  damning  those  they  have  no  mind  to." 

To  many  of  these  perfunctory  anathemas,  the  proper 
reply  is  in  the  words  of  the  master,  ' '  Who  art  thou  that 
judgest  another  man's  servant?"  We  know  but  in  part 
even  as  to  ourselves,  how  much  less  as  to  others.  So 
that  it  may  often  happen  that 

"The  sin  forgiven  by  Christ  in  Heaven 
By  man  is  cursed  alway." 

Such  harsh  moral  judgments  may  find  approval  in  an 
age  of  (<  cant  and  conventicles, "  but  as  in  the  case  of  Poe 
are  sure  to  be  reversed  in  a  period  of  greater  moral  and 
intellectual  enlightenment. 


68  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 


We   append    one    of  Poe's    earliest  and    one    of  his 
latest  Poems. 


To  HELEN, 


HELEN,  thy  beauty  is  to  me 

Like  those  Nicean  barks  of  yore, 

That  gently,  o'er  a  perfumed  sea, 

The  weary,  way-worn  wanderer  bore. 
To  his  own  native  shore. 

On  desperate  seas  long  wont  to  roam, 
Thy  hyacinth  hair,  thy  classic  face, 

Thy  Naiad  airs  have  brought  me  home 
To  the  glory  that  was  Greece 
And  the  grandeur  that  was  Rome. 

Lo !  in  yon  brilliant  window-niche 
How  statue-like  I  see  thee  stand ! 

The  agate  lamp  within  thy  hand, 

Ah  !   Pysche,  from  the  regions  which 
Are  Holy  Land  ! 


ULALUME, 


THE  skies  they  were  ashen  and  sober ; 

The  leaves  they  were  crisped  and  sere — 
The  leaves  they  were  withering  and  sere; 

It  was  night  in  the  lonesome  October 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  69 

Of  my  most  immemorial  year; 
It  was  hard  by  the  dim  lake  of  Auber, 

In  the  misty  mid  region  of  Weir — 
It  was  down  by  the  dank  tarn  of  Auber, 

In  the  ghoul-haunted  woodland  of  Weir. 

Here  once,  through  an  alley  Titanic, 

Of  cypress,  I  roamed  with  my  Soul— 

Of  cypress,  with  Psyche,  my  Soul. 
These  were  days  when  my  heart  was  volcanic 

As  the  scoriae  rivers  that  roll — 

As  the  lavas  that  restlessly  roll 
Their  sulphurous  currents  down  Yaanek 

In  the  ultimate  climes  of  the  pole — 
That  groan  as  they  roll  down  Mount  Yaanek 

In  the  realms  of  the  boreal  pole. 

Our  talk  had  been  serious  and  sober, 

But  our  thoughts  they  were  palsied  and  sere — 
Our  memories  were  treacherous  and  sere — 

For  we  knew  not  the  month  was  October, 

And  we  marked  not  the  night  of  the  year — 
(Ah,  night  of  all  nights  in  the  year !) 

We  noted  not  the  dim  lake  of  Auber— 

(Though  once  we  had  journeyed  down  here) — 

Remembered  not  the  dank  tarn  of  Auber, 

Nor  the  ghoul-haunted  woodland  of  Weir. 

And  now,  as  the  night  was  senescent 

And  star-dials  pointed  to  morn — 

As  the  star-dials  hinted  of  morn — 
At  the  end  of  our  path  a  liquescent 

And  nebulous  lustre  was  born, 


70  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

Out  of  which  a  miraculous  crescent 
Arose  with  a  duplicate  horn— 

Astarte's  bediamonded  crescent 

Distinct  with  its  duplicate  horn. 

And  I  said — "  She  is  warmer  than  Dian  : 
She  rolls  through  an  ether  of  sighs — 
She  revels  in  a  region  of  sighs  : 

She  has  seen  that  the  tears  are  not  dry  on 

These  cheeks,  where  the  worm  never  dies, 

And  has  come  past  the  stars  of  the  Lion 
To  point  us  the  path  to  the  skies — 
To  the  Lethean  peace  of  the  skies — 

Come  up,  in  spite  of  the  Lion, 

To  shine  on  us  with  her  bright  eyes — 

Come  up  through  the  lair  of  the  Lion, 
With  love  in  her  luminous  eyes." 

But  Psyche,  uplifting  her  finger, 

Said — "  Sadly  this  star  I  mistrust — 
Her  pallor  I  strangely  mistrust : — 

Oh,  hasten  ! — oh,  let  us  not  linger  ! 

Oh,  fly  ! — let  us  fly! — for  we  must." 

In  terror  she  spoke,  letting  sink  her 

Wings  until  they  trailed  in  the  dust — 

In  agony  sobbed,  letting  sink  her 

Plumes  till  they  trailed  in  the  dust — 
Till  they  sorrowfully  trailed  in  the  dust. 

I  replied — "This  is  nothing  but  dreaming: 
Let  us  on  by  this  tremulous  light ! 
Let  us  bathe  in  this  crystaline  light ! 

Its  Sibylic  splendor  is  beaming 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE.  /I 

With  Hope  and  in  Beauty  to-night  :— 

See  ! — it  flickers  up  the  sky  through  the  night ! 
Ah,  we  safely  may  trust  to  its  gleaming 

And  be  sure  it  will  lead  us  aright — 
We  safely  may  trust  to  a  gleaming 

That  cannot  but  guide  us  aright, 

Since  it  flickers  up  to  Heaven  through  the  night." 

Thus  I  pacified  Psyche  and  kissed  her, 
And  tempted  her  out  of  her  gloom— 
And  conquered  her  scruples  and  gloom  ; 

And  we  passed  to  the  end  of  the  vista, 

But  were  stopped  by  the  door  of  a  tomb — 
By  the  door  of  a  legended  tomb ; 

And  I  said — "  What  is  written,  sweet  sister, 
On  the  door  of  this  legended  tomb  ?" 
She  replied — "Ulalume — Ulalume— 
'Tis  the  vault  of  thy  lost  Ulalume !" 

Then  my  heart  it  grew  ashen  and  sober 

As  the  leaves  that  were  crisped  and  sere — 
As  the  leaves  that  were  withering  and  sere, 

And  I  cried — "It  was  surely  October — 
On  this  very  night  of  last  year 
That  I  journeyed — I  journeyed  down  here— 
That  I  brought  a  dead  burden  down  here — 
On  this  night  of  all  nights  in  the  year, 
Ah,  what  demon  has  tempted  me  here  ? 

Well  I  know,  now,  this  dim  lake  of  Auber — 
This  misty  mid  region  of  Weir. 

Well  I  know,  now,  this  dank  tarn  of  Auber, 
This  ghoul-haunted  woodland  of  Weir." 


72  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 


A  BIOLOGICAL  THERMIDOR." 


Grant  Allen,  the  English  biographer  of  Charles  Dar- 
win, has  said  that  from  the  date  of  the  publication  of 
that  notable  book,  "The  Origin  of  Species,"  the  scien- 
tific world  has  been  in  the  midst  of  a  ''biological  Thermi- 
dor.''  To  those  who  are  familiar  with  French  history 
during  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  this 
phase  is  both  significant  and  startling.  It  is  suggestive 
of  the  guillotine  ;  it  smacks  of  the  Menadic  insurrection 
and  of  Phrygian  caps  of  liberty ;  it  thrills  with  the  stir- 
ring notes  of  the  Marseillaise,  and  what  else  contributed 
to  make  the  first  French  Revolution  "the  bloodiest 
picture  in  the  book  of  time." 

So  during  the  twenty  five  years  and  more  which  have 
elapsed  since  Darwinism  became  a  topic  of  scientific  dis- 
quisition and  popular  discussion  we  have  had  heavy 
fighting  all  along  the  line  of  the  Christian  evidences,  the 
principal  point  of  attack  and  defense  being  as  to  "man's 
place  in  nature."  This,  indeed,  has  been  the  Ther- 
mopylae of  the  struggle. 

According  to  the  latter-day  scientists  man  is  in  no 
just  sense  the  product  oi  creative  skill  or  energy.  On 
the  contrary,  he  is  a  lineal  descendant  of  an  unsightly 
mud-fish  that  in  the  ages  of  the  long  ago  floundered  at  low 
tide  on  the  shores  of  an  immemorial  sea.  From  this 


A    BIOLOGICAL    THERMIDOR.  73 

lowly  beginning  he  has  been  slowly  elevated  to  his  pres- 
ent physical  proportions  and  intellectual  endowments. 

Mr.  Darwin,  in  the  last  chapter  of  his  "Descent  of 
Man,"  ventures  the  opinion  that  his  immediate  progeni- 
tor was  most  probably  a  hairy  quadruped  with  peaked 
ears  and  a  pronounced  caudal  appendage,  which  made  the 
trees  his  dwelling-place.  Ernest  Haeckel,  the  German 
anthropologist,  thinks  that  our  nearest  ancestor  was  the 
"  speechless  man/'  whose  living  representatives  are 
seen  to-day  in  the  cretins  of  Switzerland  and  other 
mountainous  countries,  and  also  in  the  various  idiotic 
and  deformed  specimens  of  humanity  which  are  occa- 
sionally found  in  all  countries.  Entertaining  such  views 
of  man's  origin,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  he  is 
in  their  estimation  a  decidedly  vulgar  and  even  diminu- 
tive fraction  in  the  grand  calculus  of  creation.. 

In  broad  contrast  with  these  views  is  the  scriptural 
presentation  of  our  humanity.  According  to  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  man  is  the  first-born  of  every  terrestrial 
creature  ;  a  being  of  royal  descent  and  destiny ;  a  being 
so  illustrious  that  he  was  divinely  invested  with  domin- 
ion over  the  birds  of  the  air,  the  beasts  of  the  field, 
and  the  fishes  of  the  sea ;  moreover,  a  being  whose 
birth-hour  was  celebrated  by  the  angels  who  kept  their 
first  estate,  and  whose  cradle  was  rocked  by  the  same 
mighty  hand  that  meted  out  the  heavens  with  a  span 
and  garnished  them  with  resplendent  beauty  and  inef- 
fable glory. 

This  first  man  was  not  the  primeval  man  of  Sir  John 
Lubbock's  crude  imagining,  but  rather  the  Adam  of 


74  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

"Paradise  Lost,"  having  angels  for  his  evening  guests 
and  God  for  his  daily  companion.  Here  we  might  rest 
the  argument,  but  instead  we  address  ourselves  to  the 
threefold  inquiry:  When,  where,  and  how  did  man 
originate?  As  to  the  when  and  where  of  this  inquiry 
we  shall  study  brevity  possibly  at  the  expense  of  clear- 
ness and  force.  As  yet,  however,  the  data  bearing  on 
these  points  are  insufficient  in  number  and  certitude ; 
and  any  conclusions  we  might  reach  would  be  of  neces- 
sity provisional.  The  same,  in  part,  might  be  stated  of 
the  whole  theory  of  evolution.  While  it  is  in  its  mere 
outline  as  old  as  the  Greek  philosophy,  yet  in  its  later 
aspects  it  is  of  recent  birth.  Pritchard,  the  reputed 
father  and  founder  of  anthropology,  has  died  within 
the  memory  of  some  now  living.  Lamarck  himself 
wrote  in  the  first  year  of  the  present  century;  and 
Robert  Chambers,  author  of  "The  Vestiges  of  Crea- 
tion, *'  belongs  to  the  Victorian  era  of  English  history. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  as  a  science  it  is  still  in  leading- 
strings,  and  that  its  wisest  advocates  are  but  "squatters" 
in  the  Far  West  of  learning.  It  follows  that  it  ill  becomes 
an  expert,  much  less  a  self-confessed  layman,  to  dogma- 
tize in  regard  to  the  when,  where,  or  how  of  the  genesis 
of  man.  I  remember  well  when  there  was  a  deal  of 
palaver  and  pother  in  scientific  circles  with  reference  to 
to  the  Guadaloupe  man  and  the  sub-cypress  Indian  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley.  It  was  claimed  by  a  few  scien- 
tists that  these  were  the  skeletons  of  a  pre-Adamite 
race,  but  the  claim  was  disputed  by  the  great  body  of 
professional  geologists.  More  recent  discoveries — as  of 


A    BIOLOGICAL    THERMIDOR.  75 

the  Neanderthal  skull  at  Dusseldorf,  Germany,  and  of 
the  numerous  human  fossils  in  Southern  France  and  in 
other  widely-separated  osseous  deposits  in  the  New  and 
Old  Worlds — have  given  a  fresh  impulse  to  the  discus- 
sion of  the  antiquity  of  man.  It  is  now  generally 
thought  that  the  Aurignac  race  was  contemporary  in 
Southern  Europe  with  the  mammoth  and  the  cave  bear. 
All  efforts,  however,  to  find  the  tertiary  man  have  been 
abortive.  So  much  is  this  true  that  no  reputable 
anthropologist  asserts  that  there  are  any  satisfactory 
proofs  of  man's  existence  beyond  the  quaternary  period 
of  the  earth's  history.  Some  attribute  this  lack  of  proof 
to  the  warped  and  broken  condition  of  the  geological 
record,  and  are  confident  that  unmistakable  traces  of 
this  primitive  man  will  yet  be  found  in  the  earliest  strata 
of  the  tertiary  age.  To  us  it  appears  that  at  the  pres- 
ent stage  of  scientific  discovery  this  hypothesis  is  so 
thoroughly  without  legs  that  its  opponents  may  fairly 
insist  on  a  finding  more  decisive  than  a  Scotch  verdict. 
And  yet  there  must  be  some  modification  of  theological 
views  as  to  the  antiquity  of  man.  While  I  do  not 
accept  the  statement  of  Professor  John  Tyndall  that 
man  is  a  being  of  strictly  secular  growth,  [  do  accept 
the  statement  that  he  is  not  a  thing  of  yesterday.  Nor 
do  I  esteem  it  a  heresy  to  say  that  he  is  not  a  thing  of 
six  thousand  years  ago.  This  opinion  in  no  wise  con- 
flicts with  a  fair  interpretation  of  Genesis,  and  is  more 
in  harmony  with  Bible  history.  If,  as  is  now  univer- 
sally believed,  the  days  of  creation  were  immense  geo- 
logical eras,  then,  although  man  was  created  late  in  the 


/6  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

evening  of  the  sixth  day,  yet  it  leaves  ample  room  for 
the  ten  thousand  years  of  man's  inhabitance  of  the 
earth,  which,  according  to  Professor  Dana,  is  all  that 
geology  requires. 

Moreover,  the  historical  fact  mentioned  in  the  Bible 
that  there  existed  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile  a  high  state 
of  civilization  in  the  days  of  Joseph  is  not  easily  recon- 
ciled with  the  received  chronology.  Besides,  to  show 
how  little  reliance  may  be  placed  on  this  chronology, 
you  have  only  to  remember  that  there  is  a  discrepancy 
of  one  thousand  years  between  the  Hebrew  and  Sama- 
ritan chronologies.  We  may  be  well  content,  therefore, 
to  leave  this  problem  as  to  the  when  of  man's  creation 
to  future  developments  for  its  approximative  solution. 
In  no  event  will  that  solution  affect  the  authenticity  or 
credibility  of  the  sacred  Scriptures.  Nor  is  the  second 
inquiry  as  to  where  man  was  created  a  vital  question. 
Upon  this  point,  however,  there  are  two  widely-diver- 
gent theories.  A  majority  hold  with  much  tenacity  to 
the  theory  that  all  branches  of  the  human  family  pro- 
ceeded from  a  common  geographical  center,  usually 
located  on  the  table-lands  of  Western  and  Central  Asia. 
Starting  from  this  point,  they  have  by  successive  migra- 
tions peopled  the  various  continents  and  islands  of  the 
globe.  The  ablest  expounder  or  this  theory  is  Quatre- 
fages,  the  eminent  French  anthropologist.  He  makes 
it  plausible,  but  it  is  evidently  embarrassed  by  almost 
insuperable  difficulties.  On  this  dubious  hypothesis  of 
a  common  origin  is  largely  based  the  belief  of  the  physi- 
cal unity  of  the  races.  Without  staying  to  weigh  or 


A    BIOLOGICAL    THERMIDOR.  77 

determine  its  scriptural  and  scientific  value,  we  submit 
another  theory  whose  greatest  advocate  was  the  illustri- 
ous Swiss  naturalist,  Louis  Agassiz.  He  maintained 
that,  just  as  there  were  several  distinct  centers  for  the 
creation  of  animals  and  plants,  so  likewise  there  were 
nine  distinct  realms  for  the  creation  of  man.  This 
theory  he  elaborated  and  illustrated  by  a  multitude  of 
facts  drawn  from  all  parts  of  the  earth.  For  example, 
the  island-continent  of  Australia  has  a  fauna  and  flora 
unlike  any  other  in  either  hemisphere.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  opossum  of  North  America,  there  is  not  a 
single  marsupial  in  the  world  outside  of  Australia  nor 
is  there  a  solitary  aboriginal  mammal  in  Australia  that 
is  found  elsewhere.  The  same  fact  holds  with  reference 
to  the  flora  of  Australia.  Not  a  single  vegetable  species 
known  to  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  or  America  is  indige- 
nous to  her  soil.  The  same  or  similar  facts  obtain  every- 
where. The  polar  bear  of  the  arctic  regions,  the  llama  of 
Peru,  the  armadillo  of  Brazil,  the  tiny  humming-bird  of 
the  American  coast — these  and  thousands  of  similar 
instances  illustrate  the  theory  of  Agassiz  in  regard  to 
plants  and  the  lower  animals.  Not  less  is  this  theory 
vindicated  by  the  broad  line  of  demarkation  between 
the  New  and  the  Old  World  monkeys  and  the  geographi- 
cal limitations  of  the  gorilla,  chimpanzee,  and  orang — 
the  highest  in  the  scale  of  anthropoid  apes. 

At  the  date  of  the  discovery  of  America  there  was 
not  a  single  animal  found  on  this  continent  that  was 
known  to  the  zoology  of  the  Old  World.  These  differ- 
ences are  accounted  for,  as  some  suppose,  by  the  differ- 


78  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

ence  of  environment.  In  our  judgment,  the  doctrine 
of  distinct  centers  of  creation  is  more  accordant  with 
these  facts  of  observation.  Indeed,  several  eminent 
scientists  have  conceded  that,  but  for  its  seeming  con- 
flict with  the  scriptural  dogma  of  the  brotherhood  of 
man,  the  opposite  view  would  have  no  following  apart 
from  the  infidel  evolutionists  who  believe  in  uniform 
development  "from  protoplasm  to  Shakespeare. "  That 
the  Bible  does  inculcate  the  brotherhood  of  man  may 
be  admitted  without  accepting  the  theory  of  the  physi- 
cal unity  of  the  races.  That  brotherhood,  properly 
interpreted,  does  not  rest  on  the  basis  of  derivation 
from  a  single  pair  or  a  single  geographical  center  ;  but 
on  a  like  moral  nature,  on  a  common  sense  of  moral 
responsibility,  a  common  theistic  conception,  a  common 
intuition  of  immortality,  and,  most  of  all,  on  the  scrip- 
tural declarations  that  Jesus  Christ,  "by  the  grace  of 
God,  tasted  death  for  every  man,"  and  that  "he  is  the 
Saviour  of  all  men,  especially  of  them  that  believe." 
All  this  is  precious  truth  that  may  be  consistently  held 
without  the  acceptance  of  such  narrow  and  utterly  mis- 
leading statements  as  originated  with  Anacharsis  Clootz 
during  the  "  Reign  of  Terror,"  and  have  found  a  respon- 
sive echo  amongst  the  cranky  philanthropes  of  the  pres- 
ent century.  The  fruits  of  such  teaching  are  realized  in 
Negrophilism,  which  is  but  a  phase  of  anarchism,  and 
in  other  disruptive  tendencies  that  perpetually  threaten 
society  with  a  return  of  "chaos  and  old  night." 

We  come  now  to  a  question  of  broader  significance 
than  those  to  which  we  have  already  referred.     That 


A    BIOLOGICAL    THERMIDOR.  79 

question  relates  to  the  how  of  man's  genesis.  This 
branch  of  our  inquiry  is  of  vital  import.  There  is  no 
disguising  the  fact  that  it  presents  a  life-and-death  issue 
between  natural  science  and  revealed  religion.  If,  as 
the  disciples  of  Darwin  claim,  that  distinguished  scient- 
ist not  only  established  the  fact  of  organic  evolution, 
but  developed  also  the  process  ;  or,  as  one  of  them  puts 
it  in  Aristotelian  phrase,  discovered  the  TTO>$  as  well  as 
the  on — then  one  or  the  other  must  inevitably  go  to 
the  wall.  Most  of  our  readers  can  recall  Topsy,  the 
slave  girl  in  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  who,  when  asked, 
"Who  made  you?"  innocently  replied:  "I  wasn't 
made  ;  I  jest  growed." 

This  reply  of  Topsy  embodies  the  germ-thought  of 
evolution.  As  intimated  in  the  former  part  of  this 
article,  this  theory  is  by  no  means  a  speculative  novelty. 
It  existed  thousands  of  years  before  Charles  Darwin 
started  upon  his  three  years'  voyage  as  the  naturalist  ot 
the  "Beagle." 

The  philosophers  who  disputed  with  Paul  in  the  mar- 
ket-place at  Athens,  while  differing  in  details,  were  fully 
agreed  that  matter,  even  in  its  grossest  forms,  had  in 
itself  the  promise  and  potency  of  all  terrestrial  things. 
Lucretius,  in  his  poem,  "  De  Rerum  Natura,"  set  forth 
a  similar  philosophy.  So  little  of  originality  is  there  in 
Darwin's  boasted  discovery  that  Le  Conte  has  said  that 
if  there  had  been  no  Agassiz  there  could  have  been  no 
Darwin.  So  likewise  others  of  his  ardent  disciples.  Nor 
does  it  admit  of  sober  questioning  that  for  his  views  of 
natural  selection  he  was  indebted  to  his  abler  contem- 


8O  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

porary,  Alfred  Russell  Wallace.  While,  therefore,  he 
was  not  the  moral  monster  that  some  have  depicted 
him,  still  less  was  he  the  great  discoverer  that  Sir 
Charles  Lyell  and  others  claim  him  to  have  been.  Car- 
lyle  is  not  wide  of  the  mark  when  he  said  that,  like  all 
the  Darwins,  from  Erasmus,  the  author  of  "Zoonomia, " 
to  the  latest  generation  he  was  rather  weak  than  wicked. 
But  we  are  now  less  concerned  with  the  author  him- 
self than  with  his  theory  of  organic  evolution.  Evolu- 
tion, in  its  popular  acceptation,  is  unquestionably  true 
within  certain  well-defined  limits.  As  has  been  said  by 
an  eminent  writer,  it  is  "  continuous,  but  paroxysmal." 
This  paradox,  while  it  seems,  as  do  all  paradoxes,  to 
involve  a  contradiction  in  terms,  is  the  very  gist  of  this 
age-long  and  world-wide  controversy.  Any  other  the- 
ory of  organic  evolution  is  embarrassed  by  two  insuper- 
able difficulties.  These  are  spontaneous  generation  and 
transmutation  of  species,  either  or  both  of  which  are 
utterly  lacking  in  proof.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is 
not  in  all  the  thousands  of  years  of  the  historic  period 
a  scintilla  of  evidence  in  support  of  either  hypothesis. 
Even  such  pronounced  evolutionists  as  Huxley,  Tyndall 
and  Spencer  confess  that  this  is  true  as  respects  spon- 
taneous generation.  But  they  think  it  probable  that, 
by  some  as  yet  undiscovered  combination  of  oxygen, 
nitrogen,  carbon,  and  hydrogen,  with  the  help  of  elec- 
tricity, a  living  organism  may  be  evolved.  Those  who 
are  acquainted  with  the  experiments  and  manipulations  of 
the  laboratory,  with  reference  to  this  result,  will  know 
the  intrinsic  worthlessness  of  this  scientific  conjecture. 


A    BIOLOGICAL    THERMIDOR.  8 1 

In  '  'The  Vestiges  of  Creation"  it  was  roundly  asserted  that 
a  living  organism  had  been  produced  by  the  transmis- 
mission  of  the  electric  current  through  a  solution  of 
silicate  of  iron.  This  organism  was  christened  Acarus 
Crossii,  in  honor  of  the  discoverer ;  but  later  investiga- 
tion, with  the  aid  of  a  powerful  microscope,  proved  that 
the  new-comer  was  simply  an  old-fashioned  inhabitant 
of  the  beetle  family  that  abounds  in  the  debris  of  dilapi- 
dated houses  and  other  waste  places.  For  anything 
brought  to  light  by  the  most  diligent  researches  of  the 
scientist  the  venerable  axiom,  "Ad  ovo  omnia"  still 
"  holds  the  fort  "  against  all  adversaries. 

Here,  then,  as  before  stated,  is  an  insuperable  diffi- 
culty in  the  way  of  evolutionism.  Until  this  chasm  is 
bridged  we  are  not  prepared  to  accept  the  Spencerian 
postulate  that  "creation  is  unthinkable."  There  is 
more  philosophy  in  Voltaire's  saying  that  if  there  was 
no  God  it  would  be  necessary  to  invent  one,  if  for  no 
other  purpose  but  to  meet  the  exigences  of  this  nebu- 
lous theory,  "  sent  into  this  breathing  world  scarce  half 
made  up." 

But  if  the  argument  for  spontaneous  generation  breaks 
down,  what  better  can  be  said  of  transmutation  of  species 
by  the  law  of  natural  selection  or  the  survival  of  the  fittest  ? 
In  nothing  is  the  inconclusiveness  of  Darwinian  logic 
more  conspicuous  than  in  his  reasoning  from  the  effects 
of  artificial  selection,  in  producing  varieties  amongst 
domesticated  fowls  and  cultivated  plants,  to  the  genera- 
tion of  human  species.  Because,  forsooth,  the  numer- 
ous varieties  of  pigeons — the  swift-winged  carrier,  the 


82  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

dizzy  tumbler,  the  self-satisfied  fan-tail,  and  others — are 
all  developed  from  the  blue-rock  pigeon  by  artificial 
selection,  therefore  he  argues  that  natural  selection  has 
by  a  practically-incalculable  series  of  changes  evolved 
the  highest  style  of  man  from  the  jelly-fish.  If  this  be 
science,  away  with  it ;  if  this  be  logic,  cast  it  to  the 
dogs.  The  supreme  silliness  of  this  inferential  reason- 
ing will  appear  in  this  that  by  the  counteractive  law  of 
reversion  to  type,  this  same  flock  of  pigeons,  if  turned 
loose  on  a  desolate  island  in  mid-ocean,  would  return  to 
the  primitive  Columba  livia  of  the  naturalist;  illustrat- 
ting  the  law  of  the  fixity  of  species,  which  is  unrepeal- 
able  except  by  an  act  of  the  Divine  Lawgiver  who 
enacted  it  for  the  conservation  of  the  harmony  of  the 
animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms.  Of  like  tenor  is  his 
argument  drawn  from  the  artificial  fertilization  of  orchids. 
As  in  the  former  instance,  he  insists  that  by  the  same 
law  of  natural  selection  the  humblest  reed  shaken  by  an 
evening  zephyr  has  through  vast  eons  been  developed 
into  the  Norwegian  fir,  the  brave  old  English  oak,  and  even 
the  red- woods  that  a  learned  geologist  tells  us  were  stran- 
ded on  the  slopes  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  at  the  close  of 
the  glacial  epoch.  If  this  be  the  credence  of  scientists, 
let  us  hear  no  more  of  the  superstitious  credulity  of  the 
"Judaeus  Apella  "  of  the  Roman  satirist,  and  let  these 
gentlemen  cease  their  harping  about  an  "  unknowable 
God"  and  an  "  unthinkable  creation." 

But  we  propose  now  to  test  this  scientific  dogma  of 
transmutation  of  species  by  what  Huxley  has  styled 
"the  method  of  Zadig,"  which,  after  all,  is  the  old 


A    BIOLOGICAL    THERMIDOR.  83 

common-sense  method,  which  is  at  once  inductive  and 
deductive.  Zadig  was  an  Oriental  sage  who  figures  in 
one  of  Voltaire's  novels.  His  method  may  be  aptly 
illustrated  by  an  incident.  A  Bedouin  chief  walks  out 
from  his  tent  in  the  morning,  and  observes  the  unmis- 
takable foot  prints  of  a  camel  in  the  desert  sand.  He 
says  to  Hamed:  "  A  camel  passed  our  tent  last  night." 
"How  do  you  know?"  says  Hamed;  "did  you  see 
him?"  "  No,"  rejoins  the  chief,  "but  here  you  see  his 
foot-prints,  and  I  know  it  as  well  as  if  I  had  seen  him." 
This,  says  Huxley,  is  the  method  of  true  science,  and 
and  we  endorse  the  statement.  Now  for  the  application. 
In  the  Silurian  age  of  geology  the  seas  swarmed  with 
mollusks  of  marvelous  number  and  variety,  with  occa- 
sional ctustacea  like  the  cray-fish,  or,  as  we  called  it  in 
boyhood,  the  craw-fish — a  sort  of  a  fresh-water  lobster. 
Toward  the  close  of  this  age  there  were  a  few  trilobites, 
which  evolutionists  claim  to  be  intermediate  or  transi- 
tional forms,  but  which  Agassiz  styled  ' '  prophetic 
types."  All  of  them,  however,  were  invertebrates. 
After  the  lapse,  it  may  be  of  thousands  of  years  we 
reach  the  Devonian  age  of  the  geologist.  Here  we  find 
an  abrupt  change  in  the  forms  of  animal  life.  Hugh 
Miller,  with  his  hammer  and  other  equipment,  was 
prosecuting  his  geological  studies  in  the  old  red  sand- 
stone of  Scotland,  and  in  its  earliest  strata,  when  he  came 
unawares  upon  a  vertebrate  fish.  Nor  was  it  of  an 
inferior  type  of  organism,  but  on  the  contrary  a  ganoid 
of  complex  structure  and  of  enormous  size — eighteen 
feet  in  length.  When  the  great  geologist  made  this  dis- 


84  LECTURES     AND    ESSAYS. 

covery  he  reverently  exclaimed:  "  Here  I  see  the  foot- 
prints of  the  Creator."  Was  not  this  reasoning  after 
the  method  of  Zadig  ?  What  say  the  infidel  evolution- 
ists to  Hugh  Miller's  logic  ?  Do  they  suggest  that  there 
are  missing  links  between  the  mollusks  of  the  former 
age  and  the  ganoids  of  the  Devonian  ?  Let  these  miss- 
ing links  be  brought  into  court,  or  else  let  the  captious 
critic  hold  his  peace.  Mark  their  inconsistency.  They 
find  by  careful  searching  a  few  chipped  flints,  with  an 
occasional  arrow-head  or  stone  hatchet  in  the  Abbeville 
drift,  and  they  straightway  rightly  conclude  that  these 
are  proofs  of  man's  presence  and  skill.  But  when 
Hugh  Miller  finds  the  astereolepis  in  the  old  red  sand- 
stone— with  its  symmetrical  form,  its  well-constructed 
eye  as  perfect  for  its  purpose  as  the  best  optical  instru- 
ment manufactured  at  Dresden  or  Vienna — these  same 
gentlemen  pooh-pooh  the  suggestion  that  here  is  over- 
whelming evidence  of  a  special  creation.  This  identical 
proof  runs  through  the  whole  geological  record  from  the 
dawn  of  animal  life  to  the  psychozoic  age,  when  man 
appears  as  perfect  in  physical  structure  as  he  is  seen 
to-day  in  London  or  Paris. 

We  know  full  well  that  Huxley,  in  his  discussion 
with  Gladstone,  insists  that  the  several  dynasties  of 
fishes,  reptiles,  mammals,  etc.,  were  not  successive,  as 
taught  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  Modern  research, 
he  argues,  has  shown  that  they  were  largely  simultane- 
ous;  but  as  yet  the  only  evidence  he  adduces''' is  the 
casual  discovery  of  the  wing  of  an  insect  in  the  silurian 
rocks,  and  a  few  other  supposed  facts  quite  as  insignifi- 


A  BIOLOGICAL  THERMIDOR.  85 

cant.  But  .let  us  now,  as  we  best  may,  ascertain  from 
the  testimony  of  the  rocks  "  man's  place  in  nature." 

From  the  carboniferous  age,  when  the  earth  was 
covered  with  gigantic  ferns,  we  find  a  dim  foreshadow- 
ing of  the  coming  of  him  who  was  afterward  made  in 
the  image  of  God.  The  immense  coal-deposits  and  the 
vast  iron-beds  in  close  proximity  pointed  to  this  Age  of 
Iron.  Why  else  were  these  two  minerals,  so  indispensa- 
ble to  the  higher  human  civilization,  garnered  up  in  the 
bowels  of  the  earth,  except  as  preparatory  to  God's 
crowning  creation  and  "  time's  noblest  offspring?"  So 
likewise  with  the  domestic  mammals — the  cow,  with 
distended  udders  for  nourishment ;  the  horse,  with  his 
symmetry  and  fleetness  for  journeying ;  the  ass,  with 
his  capacity  for  burden-bearing;  the  sheep,  with  his 
fleece  for  clothing  of  greater  value  than  that  which 
Jason  and  his  brother  Argonauts  sought  through  tem- 
pestuous seas  and  wearisome  years.  Was  it  mere  hap- 
hazard that  just  as  these  useful  animals  appeared  upon 
the  stage  the  fierce  carnivora  were  swept  away  by  some 
cataclysm,  or  else  gradually  shut  up  in  the  jungles  of 
India  or  in  the  sun-scorched  deserts  of  Africa  ?  Is  there 
here  no  proof  of  design,  no  evidence  of  special  ends  in 
creation  ?  Was  there  in  all  this  no  gracious  provision 
made  for  the  comfort  and  well-being  of  man,  in  whose 
likeness  there  should  be  revealed  "in  the  fullness  of 
time"  the  sublime  mystery  of  the  incarnation? 

The  acknowledged  scientists  of  the  present  age — such 
as  Alfred  Russell  Wallace,  President  Dawson  of  the 
British  Scientific  Association,  and  many  others — would 


86  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

respond  affirmatively.  One,  and  by  no  means  the  least, 
in  this  body  of  savans  has  said  that  whenever  he  saw  a 
jockey  mount  for  the  Derby  cup  he  realized  that  the  horse 
was  from  the  beginning  predestined  for  the  service  of  man. 

We  have  said  that  when  man  was  created  he  was,  as 
far  as  we  may  judge,  perfect  in  his  anatomical  structure 
and  well  equipped  every  way  for  his  divine  mission  of 
subduing  the  earth.  The  "  Pithecoid  man  "  is  a  super- 
stition of  the  infidel  scientists.  There  is  no  trace  ol 
him  in  either  the  Mosaic  or  geologic  record.  When  the 
Neanderthal  skull  was  first  examined  it  was  thought 
there  were  some  marks  of  Simian  affinity.  Especially 
was  it  alleged  that  the  low  forehead  and  the  corrugated 
brow  were  evidences  of  savagism.  The  same  was  for  a 
time  said  of  the  other  fossil  remains  of  man  ;  but  even 
such  writers  as  Oscar  Schmidt,  of  the  University  of 
Strasburg,  now  admit  that  these  remains  of  "  the  oldest 
man  "  known  to  us  display  "a  high  grade  of  develop- 
ment." So  much,  or  rather  so  little,  for  the  existence 
of  a  missing  link  which  shall  unite  the  gorilla  with  the 
degraded  tribes  of  Western  Africa. 

It  may  be  well,  in  the  summing  up  of  the  argument, 
to  subjoin  a  few  of  the  most  notable  admissions  of  the 
most  eminent  evolutionists  that  may  serve  to  rebuke 
and  silence  that  flippancy  of  tongue  which  characterizes 
a  class  of  shallow  thinkers  who  prate  about  the  super- 
stition of  creationists.  Professor  Tyndall,  who  is  a 
worthy  successor  of  Michael  Faraday,  says:  ''Those 
who  hold  the  doctrine  of  evolution  are  by  no  means 
ignorant  of  the  uncertainty  of  their  data,  and  they  yield 


A    BIOLOGICAL    THERMIDOR.  8/ 

no  more  to  it  than  a  provisional  assent."  Stripped  of 
vagueness,  that  theory  implies  that  the  genius  of  Shake- 
speare, the  wisdom  of  Plato,  and  the  art  of  Raphael 
were  once  latent  in  a  fiery  cloud  of  primeval  mist. 
"Surely  these  notions,"  says  Tyndall,  "embody  an 
absurdity  too  monstrous  to  be  received  by  any  sane 
mind."  Such  utterances  of  this  leading  scientist  are 
enough  at  least  to  exclude  the  insufferable  dogmatism 
of  Ernest  Haeckel  and  his  school.  Alfred  Russell  Wal- 
lace, who  is  fairly  entitled  to  the  credit  of  the  natural 
selection  theory,  while  he  admits  its  satisfactoriness  up 
to  the  genesis  of  man,  is  constrained  to  allow  that  at 
this  point  it  fails,  and  that  the  creation  of  man  calls  for 
Divine  intervention.  Here,  according  to  the  Horatian 
precept,  is  a  "nodus"  that  requires  the  presence  and 
hand  of  a  God  to  unravel. 

From  this  conclusion  there  is  no  door  of  escape 
except  by  unearthing  the  pre-glacial  man.  Hitherto 
his  existence  is  a  matter  of  pure  conjecture.  Nor  does 
it  avail  to  speak  in  this  connection  of  a  mutilated  geo- 
logical record,  seeing  that  from  the  beginning  of  the 
tertiary  era  to  the  diluvial  period  there  has  been  no 
serious  disturbance  of  the  stratified  rocks,  and  conse- 
quently only  slight  breaks  in  the  continuity  of  that 
record.  It  follows  inevitably  that  the  so-called  man-ape 
is  a  fiction  of  like  sort  with  the  fabulous  centaurs  and 
mermaids  of  Greek  mythology.  And  yet  it  is  obvious 
that  without  this  "missing  link"  there  is  an  end  of 
organic  evolution  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  human 
species — the  homo  sapiens  of  Linneus. 


88  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

Between  the  lowest  phase  of  savagism  and  the  highest 
form  of  the  anthropoid  there  is  a  wide  and  an  impass- 
able gulf  of  separation.  It  is  not  simply  a  question  of 
the  comparative  volume  of  brain,  or  of  the  presence  or 
absence  of  the  much-talked-of  hippocampus  minor,  or 
of  the  prehensile  big  toe  of  the  newborn  child.  These 
are  subordinate  issues  that  have  not  a  feather's  weight 
in  this  controversy.  The  "  arc  of  human  thought  "  is 
wider  than  "the  angle  of  perception,"  or  else  it  might 
stagger  in  the  face  of  these  perplexities.  Of  hardly 
more  significance  is  the  argument  which  Professor 
Joseph  Le  Conte  has  based  on  homologous  structures 
and  embryological  data.  The  former  are  in  a  large 
measure  fanciful,  and  the  analogies,  when  true,  are  such 
as  might  be  expected  to  obtain  between  all  vertebrated 
animals.  As  for  the  latter,  they  are  of  such  little  worth 
that  Von  Baer,  the  most  eminent  embryologist  of  this 
or  any  previous  age,  has  repudiated  the  assertion  that 
"the  embryos  of  the  higher  types  actually  pass  through 
forms  permanent  in  the  lower  ones."  On  the  contrary, 
he  says  that  "  the  type  of  each  animal  seems  from  the 
first  to  fix  itself  in  the  embcyo  and  to  regulate  its  whole 
development."  These  are  all  essentially  side  issues  that 
do  not  reach  the  core  of  the  main  question.  Granting 
all  that  is  claimed  for  them  by  their  most  learned  advo- 
cates, there  are  vaster  issues  which  are  not  compassed 
by  this  purblind  logic.  The  superiority  of  man  is  indeed 
best  seen  not  in  his  peculiar  and  superb  anatomy,  but  in 
that  sense  of  responsibility  to  God  which  Daniel  Web- 
ster says,  is  the  most  awful  thought  that  his  mind  ever 


A    BIOLOGICAL    THERMIDOR.  89 

conceived.  It  is  found  not  so  much  in  his  shape  or 
gesture,  grand  as  these  confessedly  are,  but,  as  Kant 
has  said,  in  "  a  moral  law  within  us  "  only  comparable 
in  its  vastness  to  the  "starry  firmament  outspread  above 
us. "  We  are  well  apprised  that  Herbert  Spencer  includes 
this  and  much  more  besides  in  his  scheme  of  cosmical 
evolution.  And  thus  God  is  thrust  out  of  his  own  uni- 
verse, and  man  is  the  inhabitant  of  a  world  doomed  to 
eternal  orphanage.  Wiser  than  this  philosophy  is  the 
simple  faith  of  the  savage,  who 

Sees  God  in  clouds  and  hears  him  in  the  wind. 

If  demonstrably  true,  it  would  be  better  to  bury  the 
dreadful  secret  deeper  ' '  than  plummet-line  has  ever 
sounded."  Most  assuredly,  then,  there  is  no  just  occa- 
sion for  the  foolish  jesting  of  these  "  learned  Thebans  " 
at  the  expense  of  their  opponents,  who  still  cling  to  the 
eternal  verities,  and  who  still  reverence  the  eternal 
sanctities  of  Theism.  It  is  no  trivial  matter  to  despoil 
humanity  of  its  faith  in  a  personal  God  who  cares  for 
oxen  and  notes  the  fall  of  a  sparrow — a  God  so  loving 
and  merciful  that  he  lights  up  the  dark  valley  of  death 
with  the  torch  of  eternal  hope,  and  promises  to  his 
"ransomed  ones"  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth, 
wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.  Better  the  horrid  hells 
of  Dante's  Inferno  than  ihe  blood-curdling  visions  and 
specters  of  this  terrible  nightmare  of  Materialism.  Most 
beautifully  and  touchingly  does  the  bard  of  Hope  apos- 
trophize : 


9O  LECTURES     AND     ESSAYS. 

For  this  hath  science  searched  on  weary  wing, 
By  sea  and  shore,  each  mute  and  living  thing. 
O  star-eyed  Science !  hast  thou  wandered  there 
To  waft  us  home  the  message  of  despair  ? 
Then  let  us  read,  nor  loudly,  nor  elate, 
The  doom  that  bars  us  from  a  better  fate ; 
And,  sad  as  angels  for  the  good  man's  sin, 
Weep  to  record  and  blush  to  give  it  in. 

When  we  recall  the  fact  that  the  English  army 
"swore  terribly  in  Flanders,"  then  the  unpremeditated 
oath  of  "  Uncle  Toby  "  may  seem  a  venial  transgres- 
sion. Not  so,  however,  the  sin  of  him  who  "  sets  his 
mouth  against  the  heavens/'  and  even  scoffingly  asks: 
"  How  doth  God  know?  and  is  there  knowledge  with 
the  Most  High?" 


ESSAYS. 


THE    CARDINAL    AND    THE    PREACHER.  93 


THE  CARDINAL  AND  THE  PREACHER, 


Plutarch  has  furnished  us  with  numerous  striking, 
historical  parallels.  A  volume  equally  large  might  be 
filled  with  broad,  historical  contrasts. 

Thomas  Wolsey  sprung  from  the  ranks  of  the  common 
people,  and,  by  dint  of  genius  and  enterprise,  rose  by 
rapid  strides  to  the  Arch-Bishopric  of  York.  The  mu- 
nificence of  his  sovereign,  Henry  the  VIII  endowed  him 
with  the  revenues  of  a  large  number  of  ecclesiastical 
livings  scattered  throughout  the  realm.  So  enormous 
was  Wolsey's  income  that  he  built  Hampton  Court  and 
gave  it  to  Henry  for  a  Royal  residence.  He  founded, 
likewise,. Christ's  Church  College  at  Cambridge,  and,  in 
the  spirit  of  the  Roman  Maecenas,  bestowed  large  bene- 
factions upon  men  of  letters.  His  devotion  to  the  Church 
amounting  almost  to  ultramontanism,  secured  for  him  a 
Cardinal's  hat.  Not  contented  with  this  elevated,  sacer- 
dotal rank,  he  became  an  aspirant  for  Pontifical  honors. 
The  quarrel  of  his  sovereign  with  Leo  X,  together  with 
the  jealousy  of  his  fellow  courtiers,  and  the  bitter  antag- 
onism of  the  Spanish  and  French  Cardinals  defeated  his 
ambitious  aims.  This  disappointment  was  itself  a  crush- 
ing blow ;  but  his  subsequent  refusal  to  abet  the  matri- 
monial infidelities  of  the  "  Royal  Blue  Beard/'  who  had 
hitherto  been  his  friend  and  patron,  drew  upon  the 


94  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

unfortunate  Cardinal  the  persecutions  of  Anne  Boleyn, 
the  mistress  of  the  hour. 

It  was  at  this  most  eventful  period  of  his  life,  when 
abandoned  by  his  Royal  master,  stripped  of  his  honors, 
and  hounded  to  the  death  by  heartless  foes,  that  Shakes- 
peare puts  into  his  mouth  those  memorable  words  of 
counsel  to  Cromwell,  his  staunch  retainer : 

"Cromwell,  I  charge  thee,  fling  away  ambition, 

For  by  that  sin  the  angels  fell, 

Let  all  the  ends  thou  aimest  at, 

Be  thy  country's,  thy  God's  and  truth's, 

Then,  if  thou  fall'st,  O  Cromwell,  thou  fall'st 

A  glorious  martyr." 

Lear,  worn,  weary  and  homeless,  and  crazed  by  the 
cruel  treatment  of  Regan  and  Goneril,  was  in  a  less 
sorrowful  plight  than  the  downtrodden  Cardinal,  when, 
after  a  wearisome  travel,  he  approached  the  gates  of 
Leicester  Abbey.  Addressing  the  Abbot,  he  said  : 

"Father  Abbot,  an  old  man,  broken  in  the 

storms  of  state, 

Comes  to  lay  his  bones  among  ye ; 
A  little  earth  for  pity's  sake." 

A  few  days  after  his  arrival  he  died  with  no  attendants 
but  the  holy  brethren,  who  ministered  to  him  the  sacra- 
ments of  his  Church,  and  the  consolations  of  religion. 
How  has  the  mighty  fallen  !  But  yesterday  he  had  as 
the  motto  of  his  signet  ring :  '  'Ego  et  Rex  meus."  ' '  Now 
lies  he  there  and  none  so  poor  as  to  do  him  reverence." 

The  moral  of  this  most  thrilling  history  may  be  summed 


THE    CARDINAL    AND    THE    PREACHER.  95 

up  in  a  single  text :  "  Seek  not  the  honor  that  cometh 
from  men,  but  the  honor  that  cometh  from  God." 

Look  on  that  picture,  and  then  on  this :  When  the 
history  of  American  Methodism  shall  be  fully  written, 
few  names  will  occupy  a  more  prominent  place  than  that 
of  Lovick  Pierce. 

Like  the  illustrious  ecclesiastic,  of  whom  we  have  just 
written,  he  sprung  from  obscurity,  but,  unlike  him,  his 
educational  advantages  were  exceedingly  limited.  In 
despite  of  this,  however,  he  early  reached  the  highest 
distinction  as  a  preacher.  It  is  true  that  he  never  attained 
to  Episcopal  honors,  nor  did  he  ever  wield  a  commanding 
influence  in  the  General  Conference.  Like  Edmund 
Burke,  he  was  ill  adapted  to  the  leadership  of  deliberative 
assemblies. 

Indeed,  it  is  but  just  to  say  that  he  was  deficient  in  the 
faculty  of  organization,  and  possessed  only  moderate 
administrative  ability.  As  Whitfield,  the  prince  of  pul- 
pit orators,  founded  no  sect,  so  Lovick  Pierce  consum- 
mated no  great  reform  in  the  economy  of  Methodism. 
Eminently  conservative,  as  he  was,  in  reference  to  the 
fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Church,  he  was  evermore 
full  of  plans  for  the  improvement  of  its  polity.  Nearly 
all  of  these  proposed  reforms  were  lost  in  the  Committee 
on  Revisals. 

We  come  now  to  speak  of  Lovick  Pierce,  simply  as  a 
preacher  of  the  Everlasting  Gospel ;  and  in  this  respect 
he  has  had  few  equals,  and  no  superiors  in  the  American 
pulpit.  He  had  neither  the  thorough  scholarship,  nor 
the  analytical  power  of  Stephen  Olin  ;  John  Summerfield 


g6  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS 

surpassed  him  greatly  in  the  mere  art  of  persuasion. 
Bishop  Bascombe  excelled  him  in  the  thunderous  oratory 
that  reminds  us  of  an  ocean  swell.  Yet  as  a  preacher,  in 
the  Pauline  acceptation  of  the  term,  he  was  not  a  whit 
behind  the  chiefest  of  his  contemporaries. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  say,  definitely,  wherein  lay  the 
secret  of  his  immense  pulpit  power.  It  certainly  was  not 
due  to  the  vastness  of  his  literary  resources,  for  these 
were  circumscribed ;  nor  could  it  be  attributed  to  any- 
thing that  savors  of  sensationalism,  for  no  man  despised 
more  heartily  the  tricks  of  the  pulpit  mountebank,  who 
is  more  intent  on  winning  applause  than  on  winning 
souls. 

Somewhat  of  his  rare  excellence  as  a  preacher  may  be 
justly  ascribed  to  his  imposing  presence.  His  voice  was 
a  natural,  not  an  acquired  orotund,  his  articulation  was 
uniformly  distinct,  and  his  modulation  perfect.  His 
manner  of  delivery  was  sometimes  vehement,  but  never 
offensively  boisterous.  Add  to  all  this  what  the  French 
term,  "  Onction,"  and  the  old  Methodists'  "Liberty," 
and  you  have  our  idea  of  his  elocution. 

One  grand  element  of  his  success  was  his  apostolic 
saintliness  of  character.  He  believed  and  preached  the 
doctrine  of  holiness,  as  handed  down  to  us  by  Fletcher 
and  the  Wesleys. 

With  him,  however,  it  was  something  more  than  a 
mere  theory,  he  illustrated  it  in  his  daily  life.  I  have 
yet  to  see  the  man  who  more  studiously  avoided  every 
colloquial  impropriety,  whether  slang  or  vulgarity,  who 
was  more  prayerful  in  spirit,  and  more  circumspect  in  all 


THE  CARDINAL  AND  THE  PREACHER.        gj 

his  deportment.  While  at  times  he  had  an  air  of  morose- 
ness,  there  underlay  this  harsh  exterior  a  sympathy  as 
genial  as  the  breath  of  spring-time,  and  as  far-spreading 
as  the  blue  sky  above.  His  charity  had  no  bounds. 
Never  was  there  a  more  appreciative  listener  to  the  com- 
monplaces of  the  pulpit  or  a  more  enraptured  hearer  of 
the  platitudes  of  Commencement  Orators  and  Essayists. 

Next  to  his  personal  purity  and  thorough  consecration 
to  his  ministerial  work,  was  his  mastery  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  No  one  more  fully  realized  Mr.  Wesley's 
conception  of,  "  Homo  unius  libri"  The  Bible  was  the 
armory  whence  he  drew  the  weapons,  which,  on  many 
a  hard-fought  field,  were  mighty  to  the  pulling  down  of 
strongholds.  We  would  not  intimate  that  he  was  alto- 
gether neglectful  of  polite  literature.  He  was  indeed 
familiar  with  the  standard  English  authors,  and  was 
always  abreast  with  the  current  phases  of  philosophy. 

But,  beyond  all  else,  he  studied  the  Bible — not  de- 
tached portions,  as  the  manner  of  some  is,  but  every 
part  and  parcel  of  it.  He  knew  the  Pentateuch  as  well 
as  the  four  Gospels.  He  was  as  fully  conversant  with 
the  weird  visions  of  Ezekiel,  and  the  mystic  imagery  of 
the  Apocalypse,  as  with  the  simpler  Messianic  prophe- 
sies of  Isaiah. 

He  had  well  nigh  committed  to  memory  the  Psalms 
of  David,  yet  he  was  hardly  less  familiar  with  the  Prov- 
erbs of  Solomon.  If  any  portion  of  the  Divine  Revela- 
tion was  more  highly  esteemed  and  carefully  studied 
than  any  other,  it  was  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  His 
understanding  of  the  Pauline  system  was  critically  exact 


98  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

and  his  Exegesis  of  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and 
Hebrews  was  more  than  masterly,  it  savored  of  the 
supernatural.  With  such  resources  as  these,  it  was  no 
matter  of  marvel  that  he  was  a  master  of  assemblies. 

Only  secondary  to  these  two  elements  was  his  won- 
derful gift  as  an  extemporaneous  speaker.  He  had,  as 
was  well  understood,  an  invincible  aversion  to  written 
sermons.  Now  and  then  he  has  been  known  to  inveigh 
against  them  with  an  earnestness  that  left  no  room  for 
doubt  as  to  the  strength  of  his  convictions.  Let  it  not 
be  supposed,  however,  that  he  at  all  countenanced  the 
notion  of  extemporaneous  thinking.  On  the  contrary, 
he  was  diligent  in  preparation  for  his  pulpit  work. 

I  have  personal  knowledge  on  this  point,  on  more 
than  one  occasion.  Still  he  had  so  trained  himself  to 
extemporaneous  speaking  that  his  spoken  style  was  far 
better  than  his  written  style.  The  former  was  terse,  at 
times  epigrammatic,  always  sparkling;  the  latter  was 
labored,  involved,  and,  frequently  turgid.  It  is  to  be 
deplored  that  he  did  not  cultivate  writing  until  advanced 
life.  Richard  Baxter,  a  laborious  pastor,  and  a  life  long 
invalid,  left  material  for  forty  folio  volumes  ;  Dr.  Pierce 
scarcely  left  sufficient  material  for  a  single  duodecimo. 

During  his  earlier  ministry  his  toil  and  travel  were 
immense.  Like  St.  Paul,  he  was  in  perils  both  in 
the  city  and  the  wilderness.  His  districts  embraced 
a  larger  geographical  area  than  the  Apostle  trav- 
ersed in  his  first  missionary  tours.  These  abundant 
labors  left  him  but  little  opportunity  for  strictly  lit- 
erary work,  and  furnish  ample  apology  for  his  appar- 


THE  CARDINAL  AND  THE  PREACHER.        99 

ent  short  comings.  Besides,  he  fell  on  evil  days, 
when  Methodism  was  every  where  spoken  against; 
when  the  spirit  of  a  confessor  and  the  courage  of 
a  martyr  was  needed  to  confront  the  enemies  of  Meth- 
odism. Luckily  for  himself  and  the  Church,  he  was 
cast  in  the  same  heroic  mould  as  Francis  Asbury  and 
William  McKendree.  He  faltered  not  for  a  single  mo- 
ment in  the  face  of  opposition,  but  steered  right  onward 
to  the  goal.  The  usual  order  of  Divine  Providence  is, 
<(That  one  soweth  and  another  reapeth,"  but  he  sur- 
vived this  era  of  depression,  and  lived  to  see  Methodism 
the  dominant  religious  Organization  of  this  Continent 
and  the  leading  religious  denomination  of  the  Protes- 
tant world.  It  was,  indeed,  gratifying  to  witness  the 
distinguished  consideration  with  which  he  was  treated  in 
his  old  age,  in  all  the  Annual  and  General  Conferences 
of  the  Church.  This  was  no  constrained  tribute  to  rank, 
or  wealth, .or  power;  but  the  spontaneous  recognition  of 
intellectual  and  moral  worth  of  the  highest  order. 

Dr.  Pierce  did  not  lag  superfluous,  on  the  stage.  He 
wrote  or  preached  almost  to  his  dying  day.  It  is  true 
that  the  last  weeks  of  his  life  were  marked  by  great  ner- 
vous prostration.  At  times  he  seemed  bowed  down 
with  sorrow,  but  the  reaction  was  always  speedy.  It 
was  in  one  of  his  jubilant  moods  he  sent  that  message  to 
the  Churches,  "Say  to  the  brethren  I  am  lying  just 
outside  the  Gates  of  Heaven."  An  utterance  worthy  to 
be  mentioned  in  the  same  breath  with  Paul's  exclama- 
tion, in  the  depths  of  the  Mamertine  prison,  "  I  am  now 
ready  to  be  offered."  Not  less  inspiring  than  the  last 


IOO  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

words  of  Wesley,  "  the  best  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us." 
Not  a  great  while  before  his  departure  it  was  my  priv- 
ilege to  visit  and  talk  with  him  in  his  death-chamber. 
In  response  to  my  enquiry  about  his  health,  he  said : 
"I  am  lying  here  a  wreck  upon    the   coast   of  time, 
trying  to  look  into  the  Eternal  Future."     It  is  some- 
what   singular   that   the   great    Webster    used   almost 
this    identical    language    to    a    friend    during    his    last 
illness.      That  friend  replied:    "Say  not  Mr.   Webster 
a  wreck,   but  a  pyramid  on  the  coast  of  time."     My 
reply  was  different,    I  said :    ' '  Doctor  for  many  years 
you    have    been    getting  ready  for  this  hour."     After 
a  little  conversation  his  eye  brightened,  and  he  said : 
"I  have    some    well-matured  views  on  the   subject  of 
faith,  which  I  desire  to  submit  to  you."     I  said:    "I 
have  but  a  little  while  to  remain,  as  I  must  leave  on  the 
next  train-"     He  glanced  at  the  clock  and  said  :  •"  I  see 
you  haven't  sufficient  time  to  hear  me. "     He,  however, 
gave  me  an  outline  of  his  views,  and  I  urged  him  to 
have  them  written  and  published  for  the  edification  of 
the  church.     Thereupon  he  gave  me  his  blessing,  and  I 
withdrew.      He  lived  some  weeks  after  this  interview. 
There  is  a  beautiful  fitness,  or  rather  I  ought  to  say  a 
wise  Providence,  in  the  death-scenes  of  great  and  good 
men.      Elijah,    the    wild-eyed   Tishbite,    who    rebuked 
kings  and  smote  false  prophets  and  idolatrous  priests, 
with  the  edge  of  the  sword,  must  needs  have  a  chariot 
of  flame  and  steeds  of  fire  to  bear  him  aloft  to  the  Para- 
dise of  God.     It  was  a  fitting  close  to  a  most  stormy 
career.      But  for  Lovick  Pierce  there  was  appointed  a 


THE    CARDINAL    AND    THE    PREACHER.  IOI 

more  quiet  hour.  Calmly,  as  to  a  night's  repose,  he  lay 
down  to  his  final  rest.  He  nestled  his  weary  head  on 
the  bosom  of  Jesus,  and  with  hardly  a  pang  or  a  strug- 
gle, his  ransomed  spirit  went  "sweeping  through  the 
gates,"  to  his  exceeding  great  reward. 

What  think  ye  of  the  Cardinal  and  the  Preacher? 
How  apposite  the  language  of  David  ;  ' '  I  have  seen  the 
wicked,  in  great  power,  spreading  himself  like  a  green 
bay-tree,  yet  he  passed  away,  and  lo !  he  was  not ;  yea, 
I  sought  for  him  and  he  could  not  be  found.  Mark  the 
perfect  man  and  behold  the  upright,  for  the  end  of  that 
man  is  peace." 


102  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  ANCIENTS. 


.  We  have  no  disposition  to  revive  the  controversy 
respecting  the  comparative  merits  of  the  Ancients  and 
Moderns.  That  controversy  was,  throughout  its  various 
phases,  an  unprofitable  logomachy,  and  found  its  fitting 
consummation  in  Dean  Swift's  "  Battle  of  the  Books." 
We  are  quite  sure,  however,  that  there  still  exists  a 
popular  misapprehension  on  this  point,  and  this  Essay- 
is  prompted  by  a  sincere  desire  to  correct  this  tendency 
to  depreciate  the  world's  "gray  fathers,"  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  Science  and  Philosophy,  and  whose 
kingly  spirits  still  "rule  us  from  their  urns." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  too  highly  the  superb 
discoveries  of  modern  science,  or  the  wonderful  achieve- 
ments of  modern  art. 

But  let  us  not  hastily  conclude  that  antiquity  can  boast 
of  no  triumphs  of  genius,  equally  grand  and  imposing. 
The  discovery  of  Neptune  by  La  Verrier,  or  the  inven- 
tion of  the  Telescope  by  Galilleo,  is  not  more  wonderful 
than  the  Astronomical  discoveries  of  Thales,  the  Mile- 
sian, or  the  burning  lenses  of  Archimedes,  by  which  he 
fired  the  Carthaginian  galleys,  in  the  harbor  of  Syracuse. 
If  we  turn  to  mechanical  philosophy,  we  shall  find  that  the 
Thames  Tunnel  or  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  are  not  greater 
marvels  of  skill  and  industry  than  the  Stonehenge  of 
Salisbury  plain,  or  those  immense  Aqueducts,  whose 


THE    WISDOM    OF   THE    ANCIENTS.  1 03 

broken  arches  are  still  scattered  over  the  wide  waste  of 
the  campagna  di  Roma.  The  dome  of  St.  Peters,  that 
noblest  conception  of  Michael  Angelo,  is  utterly  eclipsed 
by  the  Parthenon,  crowning  the  brow  of  the  Acropolis, 
and  the  venerable  Cathedral,  of  York  or  Milan,  is  not 
equal  to  the  magnificent  temples,  whose  ruins  strew  the 
banks  of  the  Nile  at  Carnac  and  Luxor. 

In  order,  however,  that  we  may  have  a  proper  appre- 
ciation of  the  wisdom  of  the  ancients,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  examine  their  attainments  in  the  three  departments  of 
— ist,  the  Fine  Arts;  2d,  General  Literature;  3d,  Phi- 
losophy. We  shall  be  disappointed  if  a  candid  examina- 
tion of  these  several  heads  does  not  increase  our  admira- 
tion for  classical  antiquity.  By  the  Fine  Arts  we  intend, 
ta  present,  Music  Painting  and  Sculpture.  We  purposely 
exclude  Architecture  from  the  discussion,  as  the  relative 
inferiority  of  the  moderns  is  admitted  on  all  sides.  With 
the  doubtful  exception  of  the  Gothic  arch,  there  is  noth- 
ing excellent  in  the  style  of  our  architecture  that  is  not 
borrowed  from  antiquity. 

It  is  otherwise  in  regard  to  Music.  Here  it  must  be 
confessed  that  the  moderns  have  made  great  advance- 
ment. The  musical  instruments  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  and  of  the  earlier  Egyptains  and  Hebrews, 
were  exceedingly  rude  in  their  construction.  The  fabu- 
lous story  of  Orpheus,  who  tamed  savage  beasts  and 
drew  iron  tears  down  Pluto's  cheek,  or  the  scriptural 
narration  of  the  effects  of  David's  harp  on  the  evil  spirit 
of  Saul,  cannot  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  the  ancients  had 
not  even  a  system  of  musical  notation.  They  could  not 


IO4  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

boast  of  a  single  production  like  the  Requiem  of  Mozart; 
and  it  is  certain  that  Asaph  and  his  brethren,  when 
chanting  the  lofty  strains  of  Hebrew  Psalmody,  could 
not  be  compared  to  an  oratorio  of  Handel  as  rendered  at 
Exeter  Hall,  or  even  at  the  Boston  Academy  of  Music. 
In  the  sister  arts  of  painting  and  sculpture,  the  Greeks 
were  superior  to  any  modern  nation.  The  specimens  of 
their  art,  however,  which  have  escaped  the  Vandalism 
of  successive  conquerors,  as  well  as  the  corroding  tooth 
ol  time,  are  few  in  number,  and,  it  is  probable,  not  the 
best  of  their  class.  The  colossal  statues  of  Jupiter,  at 
Olympia,  and  of  Minerva,  at  Athens,  are  only  known 
by  the  descriptions  of  contemporary  writers,  but  it  is  a 
fair  conclusion  that  these  master-pieces  of  Phidias  as 
much  surpassed  the  Apollo  Belvidere,  as  this  latter 
statue  surpasses  the  finest  productions  of  Canova  or 
Thorwaldsen.  With  regard  to  painting,  we  should 
hesitate  to  claim  as  much  in  behalf  of  antiquity.  Unless 
we  knew  more  of  the  merits  of  Zeuxis  and  Apelles,  we 
would  not  be  warranted  in  asserting  that  the  masters  of 
the  Italian  and  Spanish  schools  of  painting  were,  in  any 
wise,  behind  their  Greek  predecessors.  Upon  the  whole, 
we  conclude  that  either  because  of  more  delicate  sensi- 
bilities among  the  Greeks,  or  the  greater  beauty  of  their 
skies,  or  the  richer  garniture  of  their  landscapes — or  else 
from  some  occult  cause,  yet  to  be  ascertained — they 
have  greatly  excelled  all  other  races  in  the  perception 
and  expression  of  beauty.  What  couiage  was  to  the 
the  Roman,  and  utility  is  to  the  Englishman — that  was 
Beauty  to  the  fellow-countrymen  of  Plato  and  Pericles. 


THE    WISDOM    OF    THE    ANCIENTS.  10$ 

In  general  literature,  we  shall  speak  only  of  Poetry 
and  Oratory. 

It  has  been  so  long  fashionable  to  consider  Homer 
the  Prince  of  Bards,  that  it  may  seem  presumptuous  in 
us  to  challenge  the  correctness  of  this  opinion.  And 
yet  we  shall  venture  to  express  our  preference  for  John 
Milton.  We  have  always  admired  the  tale  of  Troy 
divine,  but  in  a  less  degree  than  the- tale  of  "Man's  first 
disobedience,"  as  recited  in  the  pages  of  Paradise  Lost. 
The  ground-work  of  the  former  poem — the  wrath  of 
Achilles — is,  indeed,  in  true  dignity,  immeasurably 
below  those  grand  events  which  are  recorded  in  the  lat- 
ter. In  naked  sublimity,  the  author  of  the  Iliad  is 
unsurpassed ;  but,  in  varied  excellence,  he  must  yield 
to  that  blind  old  Patriot,  who  fell  on  evil  days  and  evil 
tongues. 

As  we  claim  for  Milton  the  foremost  place  amongst 
epic  poets,  so  we  maintain  that  Shakespeare  is  the  mas- 
ter-spirit of  dramatic  literature.  We  appreciate  fully 
the  great  excellence  of  the  three  illustrious  writers  of 
Greek  tragedy.  Sophocles,  Eschylus  and  Euripides 
have  single  passages  that  compare  favorably  with  the 
best  lines  of  Shakespeare ;  but  restricted,  as  they  were, 
by  the  inexorable  unities  of  Aristotle,  they  have  not 
equaled,  in  any  drama,  the  Macbeth  of  the  English  poet, 
or  the  Faust  of  his  German  rival. 

It  is  possible  that  very  many  of  our  readers  will  not 
concur  in  the  views  last  expressed,  but  we  submit  them 
as  the  deliberate  and  matured  convictions  of  our  own 
mind.  In  regard  to  Oratory,  there  is  less  room  for 


106  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

doubt  -or  disputation.  From  our  boyhood  we  have 
been  educated  to  regard  the  best  orations  of  Demos- 
thenes and  Cicero  as  models  of  Senatorial  and  Forensic 
eloquence.  There  have  not  been  wanting  splendid 
specimens  of  oratory  in  the  British  Parliament,  the 
American  Congress  and  the  French  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties ;  but  not  one  of  our  great  modern  orators — includ- 
ing Burke,  Clay,  Webster  and  Mirabeau — has  ever 
equaled  the  Athenian  orator  when  . 

He  fulmined  over  Greece 
To  Macedon  and  Artaxerxes  throne, 

and  so  electrified  his  audience  that,  with  one  voice,  they 
exclaimed,  "Let  us  march  against  Philip."  Nor  has 
one  of  them  ever  equaled  the  accomplished  Cicero,  when 
he  literally  drove  the  low-browed  conspirator  from  the 
Senate  Chamber  by  the  force  of  his  invective ;  or  as  when, 
on  another  occasion,  he  scourged  with  unsparing  severity 
the  guilty  Proconsul  of  Sicily. 

There  is  one  species  of  modern  eloquence,  however,  to 
which  there  was  nothing  analogous  in  classical  antiquity. 
We  refer,  of  course,  to  the  eloquence  of  the  Pulpit.  Here 
are  themes  transcending  the  loftiest  topics  of  the  Forum 
and  Senate  Chamber,  and  in  all  ages  of  the  Christian  era, 
they  have  been  worthily  expounded  and  illustrated.  In 
the  primitive  ages  they  were  grandly  enforced  by  Cyprian 
of  Carthage,  Ambrose  of  Milan,  and  the  golden-mouthed 
orator  of  Byzantium.  At  a  later  period  they  were  embel- 
lished by  the  genius  of  Abelard  and  enriched  by  the 
learning  of  Arminius  and  Melancthon.  These  sublime 
and  yet  simple  truths  are  adapted  to  all  classes  of  men. 


THE   WISDOM    OF   THE   ANCIENTS.  IO/ 

Falling  from  the  lips  of  Bossuet  and  Massillon,  they 
bewitched  the  dissolute  courtiers  bf  Louis  the  Great,  and 
when  proclaimed  by  Whitfield,  or  Wesley,  or  Edwards, 
they  have  stirred  the  popular  heart  like  the  blast  of  a 
trumpet.  In  this  detpartment  modern  oratory  has  won 
its  most  brilliant  triumphs,  and  here  it  is  destined  to 
achieve  yet  greater  results. 

We  now  approach  our  concluding  topic,  and  the  one 
which  desarves  the  largest  share  of  attention. 

The  philosophy  of  the  ancients  differs  from  that  of 
the  moderns,  rather  in  matters  of  detail  than  in  its  funda- 
mental principles.  Plato  and  Aristotle  may  be  truthfully 
said  to  have  attained  the  ultima  thule  of  philosophical 
inquiry,  if  not  the  uttermost  limits  of  speculative  thought. 
After  the  lapse  of  two  thousand  years  they  are  still 
acknowledged  law-givers  in  metaphysics.  Every  school 
of  modern  philosophy  derives  its  tenets  either  from  the 
Stagarite  or  the  Academician.  Every  theory,  from  the 
pure  idealism  of  Berkley  to  the  gross  materialism  of 
Condillac,  has  a  similar  origin.  The  common-sense 
philosophy  of  Reid  and  Stewart,  no  less  than  the  trans- 
cendentalism of  Hegel  and  Fichte,  is  of  ancient  date,  as 
Sir  VVm.  Hamilton  has  demonstrated. 

Bacon,  it  is  said,  subverted  the  philosophy  of  the 
schoolmen,  but  who  is  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  the  spirit 
of  Aristotle  still  survives  in  every  University  .in  Europe. 
Locke  and  his  disciples  rebelled  likewise  against  the 
authority  of  Plato,  but  the  reaction  was  speedy  and 
overwhelming,  and  has  even  passed  the  limits  of  sober 
speculation  in  the  pages  of  Kant  and  the  wilder  vagaries 


IO8  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

of  Schelling.  It  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  curious 
facts  in  the  history  of  mankind,  that,  while  in  practical 
knowledge  they  have  made  great  strides  in  the  pathway 
of  progress,  they  have  not,  for  two  thousand  years, 
advanced  a  hand's  breadth  in  metaphysical  research. 
Ever  and  anon  we  have  the  announcement  of  a  new 
philosophical  theory  heralded  by  a  flourish  of  trumpets, 
but  when  probed  to  the  bottom,  it  is  discovered  to  be 
flatly  absurd,  or  else  a  fragment  of  the  old  world's  wis- 
dom. The  two  highest  developments  of  philosophical 
thought  in  modern  times  are  contained  in  Sir  William 
Hamilton's  philosophy  of  the  Unconditioned  and  M. 
Cousin's  Eclecticism.  And  yet  it  is  safe  to  affirm  that 
there  is  hardly  a  syllable  of  either  that  was  not  taught 
on  the  banks  of  the  Illisus  and  in  the  classic  groves  of 
Academus. 

Let  it  not  be  inferred,  that  we  think  meanly  of  mod- 
ern philosophy.  On  the  contrary,  we  believe  that  it 
has  a  special  task  to  accomplish  of  vast  importance  to 
the  race.  It  has  a  work  of  reconcilement  between  the 
jarring  systems  and  warring  sects  of  philosophy,  which 
is  distinctly  foreshadowed  in  the  professorial  lectures  of 
Victor  Cousin. 

It  may  appear  altogether  impracticable  to  harmonize 
systems  so  utterly  dissimilar,  if  not  fiercely  antagonistic 
as  those  represented  respectively  by  John  Locke  and 
Immanuel  Kant. 

But  let  us  not  despair  of  some  permanent  adjustment 
of  this  "  Conflict  of  Ages."  Each  system  contains  a 
vital  truth.  And  it  is  fair  to  conclude  that  if  a  more 


THE    WISDOM    OF   THE   ANCIENTS. 

searching  analysis  is  resorted  to  that  the  seeming  diver- 
sity will  disappear  in  the  light  of  a  higher  unity.  Such 
a  discovery  would  do  more  for  metaphysical  science  than 
the  mariner's  compass  for  the  art  of  navigation — or  the 
printing  press  for  popular  enlightenment. 

When  modern  philosophy,  however,  has  achieved 
this  task,  it  has  yet  another  of  more  vital  concernment 
to  humanity.  It  needs  also  to  be  baptized  with  the 
spirit  of  Pentecost. 

It  must  recognize  Christianity  as  an  important  factor 
in  the  problem  of  man's  present  development  and  final 
destiny.  Disdaining  alike  the  specious  sophisms  of 
Hume,  and  the  vulgar  sneers  of  Voltaire,  it  must  learn 
of  him  who  was  "meek  and  lowly  of  heart."  The 
divorcement  of  Reason  and  Revelation  is  unnatural — 
yea,  monstrous — and  in  all  ages  the  consequence  has 
been  a  "vain  philosophy,"  offensive  to  God  and 
unprofitable  to  men.  When  along  with  the  ethics  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  we  combine  the  theology  of 
St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  bring  their  joint 
influence  to  bear  on  our  philosophy,  then  may  we  expect 
more  glorious  developments  than  mortal  eyes  have  ever 
witnessed. 

It  is  not  extravagant  to  assert  that  such  a  sanctified 
philosophy  would  give  an  impulse  to  the  mind  of  man 
that  would  be  felt  in  every  department  of  learning  as 
well  as  every  branch  of  enterprise. 

That  strange  yet  beautiful  incident  related  in  the 
Gospel,  of  the  visit  of  the  Magi  to  the  manger  of  Bethle- 
hem, bearing  their  tribute  of  gold,  frankincense  and 


IIO  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

i 

myrrh,  but  serves  to  symbolize  the  proper  subordina- 
tion of  all  earthly  philosophy,  to  Him  who  is  the  incar- 
nated wisdom  as  well  as  embodied  power  of  God.  It  is 
likewise  prophetical  of  that  auspicious  era  when  the 
guiding  star  of  philosophy  shall  conduct  the  votaries  of 
truth,  not  to  the  humble  birth-place  of  the  Messiah,  but 
to  the  mount  of  his  crucifixion. 

When  that  era  has  arrived,  then  will  the  religion  of 
Jesus  be  the  inspiration  of  modern  art,  and  literature, 
and  philosophy.  And  then,  too,  may  we  justly  claim 
to  have  transcended  in  these  several  departments  of 
intellectual  achievement — the  Wisdom  of  the  Ancients. 


OUR    AMERICAN    CIVILZATION.  Ill 


OUR  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION. 


Guizot,  equally  renowned  as  a  literateur  and  states- 
man, has  enriched  the  literature  of  the  world  with  an 
admirable  history  of  civilization.  Buckle,  the  English 
scholar,  projected  a  still  grander  enterprise,  which  was 
to  embrace  all  forms  of  civilization,  whether  occidental 
or  oriental,  ancient  or  modern.  He  only  lived  to  com- 
plete the  introduction,  leaving  the  main  task  to  some 
unknown  successor.  Neither  of  these  eminent  writers 
bestowejd  much  thought  or  labor  on  that  unique  style  of 
civilization  which  may  be  characterized  as  American. 

De  Tocqueville  alone,  of  domestic  or  foreign  writers, 
has  attempted  anything  like  a  philosophical  dissertation 
on  its  vices  and  its  virtues,  its  defects  and  its  excel- 
lencies. 

We  shall  not  undertake,  in  the  brief  limits  assigned  to 
this  article,  to  do  more  than  suggest  a  line  of  inquiry 
and  reflection  that  may  be  pursued  with  advantage  by 
some  one  of  greater  leisure  and  better  qualifications 
than  we  can  boast. 

The  unprecedented  development  of  the  material 
resources  of  this  mighty  continent,  the  rapid  extension 
of  our  commerce,  the  vast  strides  of  our  manufacturing 
industry,  and,  perhaps,  more  than  all  else,  the  continued 
expansion  of  our  national  territory  have  greatly  modi- 
fied, if  they  have  not  completely  moulded,  American 


I  1 2  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

civilization  into  forms  which  have  no  analogue  in  any 
other  quarter  of  the  globe.  Indeed,  our  civilization, 
like  our  language  and  population,  is  essentially  a  com- 
posite civilization.  There  is  doubtless  a  substratum  of 
Anglo-Saxonism  underlying  the  whole  superstructure  of 
our  governmental  and  social  polity.  But  there  has  been 
engrafted  on  this  primitive  stock  a  variety  of  forms  and 
usages,  and  institutions  even  that  are  utterly  alien  to  the 
soil  and  climate  of  England.  So  that  while  there  are 
numerous  points  of  contact  and  resemblance  between 
British  and  American  civilization,  yet  the  two  are,  in 
very  many  respects,  strikingly  dissimilar.  A  broader 
contrast  cannot  well  be  imagined  than  exists  between  an 
English  Parliament  and  an  American  Congress,  or  an 
English  parish  church  and  an  American  meeting-house, 
or  a  London  cockney  and  a  Broadway  swell,  or  a  burly 
Yorkshire  farmer  and  a  rollicking  Kentucky  stock- 
raiser. 

The  characteristic  feature  of  American  civilization  is 
the  love  of  adventure,  the  passion  for  excitement,  the 
delight  in  that  which  is  sensational  and  demonstrative. 
From  this  has  proceeded  three  of  the  principal  vices  of 
American  society — the  inordinate  thirst  for  money — the 
blind  adoration  of  fashion,  and  the  too  eager  pursuit  of 
pleasurable  excitement.  The  Israelites  of  the  olden 
time  worshipped  a  golden  calf  under  the  very  shadow  of 
Mt.  Sinai,  the  Ancient  Egyptians  paid  divine  honors  to 
Anuois,  the  watch-dog  of  the  tomb;  but  Americans 
worship  the  eagle,  the  so-called  bird  of  freedom,  not 
merely  as  it  is  emblazoned  on  the  national  ensigns,  but 


OUR    AMERICAN    CIVILIZATION.  113 

as  it  is  stamped  on  the  national  coins.  This  love  of 
money  stimulates  the  alarming  mania  for  speculation  in 
stocks,  in  real  estate,  and  in  almost  all  articles  of  mer- 
chandise. This,  in  its  turn,  produces  those  rapid 
changes  in  the  fortunes  of  individuals,  which  are  seldom 
witnessed  in  Europe.  In  those  older  countries  fortunes 
are  rarely  realized  or  lost  in  a  year ;  but  here  there  is 
but  a  step  from  poverty  to  affluence.  The  family  which 
yesterday  lodged  on  the  third  floor  of  a  tenement, 
to-day  is  installed  in  a  brown-stone  residence  on  Fifth 
Avenue. 

French  writers  speak  frequently  of  Parvenues,  but 
Shoddyism  is  peculiar  to  our  American  vocabulary,  and 
the  Shoddyite  is,  as  much  as  the  bison,  a  peculiarity  of 
our  American  Fauna.  It  is  not  difficult  to  perceive 
that  these  sudden  upheavals  of  the  lower  strata  of 
society  must  greatly  affect  its  general  tone,  and  greatly 
multiply  the  Muggins  and  Jenkins  tribe  in  our  highest 
circles.  It  is  therefore  to  be  feared  that  we  may  ulti- 
mately be  cursed  with  that  worst  form  of  aristocracy — 
an  aristocracy  of  wealth.  Better  for  us  to  have  a 
genuine  nobility — like  the  English  Howards  and  Rus- 
sels — than  a  spurious  nobility — like  the  Vanderbilts  and 
Spragues  and  Astors,  who  have  grown  rich  by  gambling 
in  stocks  and  other  equally  questionable  modes  of  acqui- 
sition. The  English  nobility  are  the  hereditary  guardians 
of  the  national  honor.  They  have  illustrated  British 
genius  in  the  Senate  House,  and  British  valor  on  a 
hundred  battle  fields.  They  have  been,  moreover,  the 
patrons  of  literature  and  art,  and  the  steadfast  friends 


114  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

of  religion  and  government.  Nothing  of  this  kind  may 
be  expected  of  a  moneyed  aristocracy,  which,  in  many 
cases,  has  sprung  from  private  fraud  or  official  pecula- 
tion, and  which  can  lay  claim  to  neither  culture  nor 
piety.  Another  vice  of  our  civilization  is  a  servile 
devotion  to  fashion  in  all  its  innumerable  phases. 

Within  reasonable  limits  this  disposition  is  deserving 
of  praise,  rather  than  censure ;  but  when  comfort  and 
decency  are  both  disregarded,  the  disposition  merits  the 
sternest  rebuke  from  the  pulpit  and  the  press.  The 
gentler  sex  may  be  more  open  to  criticism,  but  neither 
sex  is  guiltless  in  the  premises.  It  argues  ill  for  the 
correct  taste  of  our  people,  that  they  affect  the  glare 
and  glitter  of  the  French  styles  more  than  they  do  the 
sober  and  subdued  styles  of  England  and  Germany. 
Hence,  it  sometimes  happens  that  our  city  belles  are 
unconscious  copyists  of  the  Parisian  demi  monde,  and 
that  the  Plebian  Grisette,  and  not  the  Imperial  Eugenie, 
gives  the  cue  to  the  costumes  and  head-gear  of  our 
fashionable  maids  and  matrons.  Whatever  is  endorsed 
by  Demorest,  or  brought  forth  in  the  tawdry  fashion 
plates  of  Godey,  is  straightway  adopted.  Nor  is  this 
love  of  fashion  confined  to  high-born  and  titled  dames 
and  damsels,  but  milkmaids  make  it  a  matter  of  con- 
science to  be  flounced  and  furbelowed  in  the  latest 
style,  and  servant  girls  are  seen  tripping  to  church  or  a 
ball  in  all  the  glo/}  of  the  Grecian  bend.  We  despair, 
however,  of  eradicating  the  evil,  and  therefore  desist 
from  the  attempt. 

While  these  oddities  and  absurdities  are  to  be  con- 


OUR    AMERICAN    CIVILIZATION.  115 

demned  for  their  silliness,  there  is  another  tendency  of 
our  civilization  which  should  be  reprobated,  because  of 
its  inherent  viciousness.  We  refer  now  to  the  too  eager 
pursuit  of  pleasurable  excitement.  There  are  several 
manifestations  of  this  spirit,  chief  amongst  which  are 
the  passion  for  sensational  literature,  and  for  what  is 
termed  the  spectacular  drama.  The  former  finds  its 
principal  gratification  in  the  columns  of  the  Ledger,  or 
the  pages  of  the  novel  of  the  Southworth  school.  More 
recently  we  have  had  a  class  of  story  writers  who  have 
assailed  the  very  foundations  of  public  morality.  The 
nasty  suggestiveness  of  "The  Quick  or  the  Dead,"  and 
the  metaphysical  twaddle  of  "Robert  Elsmere "  are 
more  demoralizing  to  youthful  readers  than  the  older 
fiction  of  Paul  De  Kock  and  Madame  Dudevant.  If 
the  taste  is  still  more  depraved,  it  feasts  on  the  horrors 
and  indecent  revelations  of  the  "  Day's  Doings"  or  of 
the  National  Police  Gazette.  The  publisher  who  can  get 
his  consent  to  cater  to  this  morbid  literary  appetite  will 
have  no  lack  of  patronage,  while  publications  of  sterling 
merit  languish  and  die.  The  only  available  remedy  for 
this  sore  evil  is  to  educate  the  public  taste  to  a  nicer 
appreciation  of  what  is  really  excellent  in  literature,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  enlighten  the  moral  sense  to  a  clearer 
perception  of  the  right  and  wrong  in  human  conduct. 
The  most  startling  development  of  this  propensity  is  the 
insensate  rage  for  that  class  of  theatrical  exhibitions  of 
which  the  Black  Crook  and  White  Fawn  are  the  fitting 
types  and  representatives.  We  cannot  find  language 
severe  enough  with  which  to  stigmatize  this  shameless 


Il6  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

outrage  on  public  morals.  The  orgies  of  Bacchus,  or 
the  Saturnalia  of  the  Romans,  in  the  most  dissolute 
period  of  the  Empire,  presented  a  scene  less  offensive  to 
a  cultivated  taste  and  a  refined  moral  sensibility  than  do 
these  spectacles,  in  which  painting  and  music  are  made 
tributary  to  the  lower  instincts  of  humanity.  It  is  the 
imperative  duty  of  a  Christian  community  to  suppress 
these  exhibitions,  as  corrupting  to  the  youth  of  both 
sexes,  and  sure  to  lead  many  of  them  to  the  commission 
of  flagrant  immoralities,  if  not  to  the  perpetration  of 
felony  itself. 

We  might  specify  other  features  of  bur  civilization 
which  merit  animadversion,  but  we  refrain.  And  yet 
these  vices  and  defects  have  many  counterbalancing 
virtues  and  excellences.  Few  countries  on  the  globe 
surpass  our  own  in  reverence  for  religion — in  respect 
for  woman,  and  in  unfeigned  loyalty  to  truth  and  equity. 
It  only  needs  a  combined  effort  on  the  part  of  the  wise 
and  good  to  eradicate  a  majority  of  the  evils  complained 
of.  When  this  is  accomplished,  and  when  to  this  is 
added  greater  thoroughness  of  culture  in  all  departments 
of  learning,  we  may  expect  a  nobler  type  of  civilization 
on  this  continent  than  the  old  world  can  boast.  For 
while  it  may  be  true  that  the  line  of  human  progression 
is  not  a  gradually  ascending  Bright  line,  but  is  best 
denoted  by  a  series  of  parabolic  curves,  still  the  future 
may  show  that  American  civilization  has  reached  a 
higher  plane  than  any  which  has  preceded  it.  Thus  the 
poetry  of  Berkley  may  prove  a  sure  word  of  prophecy— 
"  Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last." 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    WANDERING    JEW.  I  I/ 

THE  LEGEND  OF  THE  WANDERING  JEW. — Goethe  in 
his  Autobiography  has  furnished  us  with  the  correct 
version  of  this  remarkable  myth.  It  seems  to  have  had 
a  sort  of  traditional  existence,  both  among  Christians 
and  Jews,  from  a  period  shortly  after  the  crucifixion  of 
our  Saviour.  It  has  been  interwoven  with  both  sacred 
and  profane  literature  to  an  extent  hardly  appreciated, 
except  by  men  of  thorough  scholarship.  The  Patristic 
writings  contain  frequent  allusions  to  it,  and  according 
to  present  recollection,  it  forms  the  basis  of  some  of 
the  best  modern  fictions.  It  furnishes  the  key-note  to 
Bulwer's  Zanoni,  Croly's  Salathiel,  and  Eugene  Sue's 
Juif  Errant, 

The  legend  relates  that  there  resided  at  Jerusalem  a 
certain  Ahasuerus,  a  shoemaker  by  trade,  who  was  a 
personal  favorite  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles.  They 
often  turned  aside  to  commune  on  earthly  as  well  as 
on  Heavenly  things  with  his  humble  but  intelligent 
craftsman.  He  seems  to  have  had  a  great  deal  of  mere 
human  sympathy  for  our  Saviour,  but  no  just  apprecia- 
tion of  his  Messianic  claims. 

He  is  said,  however,  to  have  remonstrated  against  the 
wandering  life  of  Jesus,  and  to  have  often  urged  him,  in 
his  matter-of-fact  way,  to  abandon  his  profession  of  a 
mendicant  philosopher  and  become  a  fellow-craftsman 
with  himself.  The  legend  further  states  that  Ahasuerus 
admonished  the  Saviour  that  his  course  would,  in  spite 
of  himself,  make  him  the  head  of  a  party,  and  that  in 
the  end  he  would  be  victimized  by  the  political  and 


Il8  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

religious  rulers  of  Judea.  As  Christ,  after  his  arrest 
and  condemnation,  went  to  the  mount  of  crucifixion, 
he  passed  the  shop  of  Ahasuerus  at  the  gate  of  the  city, 
who,  seeing  the  multitude,  came  forth  and  reproached 
him  most  bitterly  and  vehemently  for  disregarding  the 
counsels  he  had  formerly  given  him.  At  this  moment 
the  lovely  Veronica  threw  her  mantle  over  the  marred 
visage  of  the  Redeemer  as  if  to  hide  his  face  from  grief 
and  shame.  When  she  lifted  off  the  mantle  Ahasuerus 
saw  depicted  upon  it  the  countenance  of  the  sufferer  trans- 
figured and  radiant  with  unearthly  beauty.  At  the  same 
instant,  Jesus,  pausing  on  the  way,  said  to  him,  "Aha- 
suerus, thou  shalt  be  a  wanderer  in  the  earth  until  thou 
seest  me  coming  in  that  form."  The  guilty  man  was 
overwhelmed  by  the  announcement,  and  from  that  hour 
he  has  passed  like  night,  from  land  to  land,  the  type  of 
everlasting  unrest. 

We  have  always  thought  that  this  legend  originated 
from  the  saying  of  Christ  to  Peter  with  reference  to  the 
beloved  disciple — "  What  if  I  will  that  he  tarry  till  I 
come.''  John  himself  tells  us  that  there  was  a  current 
saying  amongst  the  disciples  that  he  should  not  see 
death  before  the  second  advent.  This,  we  think,  gives 
an  ample  historical  basis  for  the  Christian  legend. 

The  idea  embodied  in  this  myth  is  not  peculiar  to  any 
form  of  religious  faith.  We  find  its  analogue  in  the 
stone  of  Sisyphus,  the  wheel  of  Ixion,  and  the  sieve- 
drawing  daughters  of  Danaus.  It  is  the  living  illustra- 
tion of  the  scriptural  truth  that  there  is  "no  rest  for  the 
wicked,"  no  poppy  or  mandrigora  that  can  soothe  a 


THE    LEGEND    OF    THE    WANDERING    JEW.  Up 

defiled  consience  ;  no  Lethean  draught  that  can  steep 
the  senses  of  the  unrepentant  sinner  in  forgetfulness. 
It  is  a  grand,  yet  at  the  same  time  a  terrible  truth.  Retri- 
bution treads  evermore  on  the  heels  of  guilt.  It  way- 
lays every  devious  path — dogs  every  retreating  footstep, 
and  haunts  its  victim  with  the  pertinacity  of  an  aveng- 
ing Nemesis.  The  Christian  doctrine  of  the  atonement 
alone  reveals  a  purchased  redemption  and  a  gracious 
deliverance  for  the  weary  wanderer  after  rest.  Without 
it,  man  is  a  homeless  exile  from  happiness  and  Heaven. 
The  sworded  Cherubim  guard  the  way  of  the  tree  of 
life.  And  thus,  like  Ahasuerus,  burdened  with  the 
malison  of  an  insulted  Redeemer,  he  wanders  on  and 
on  and  on  until  the  feverish  dream  of  life  is  ended. 
And  then  even  the  disembodied  spirit  starts  upon  the 
broad  journeyings  of  eternity  without  a  friendly  guide, 
and  destined  never  to  reach  the  shining  goal  of  infinite 
and  endless  blessedness.  Let  him  that  readeth  pause 
and  ponder. 


I2O  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 


CHRIST  AND 


We  are  now-a-days  grievously  afflicted  with  a  species 
of  moral  knight-errantry  which  it  would  be  unjust  to  the 
hero  of  Cervantes  to  call  Quixotism.  Not  every  man 
who  has  a  crotchet  is  qualified  for  either  political  or 
moral  leadership. 

There  was  a  marked  difference  between  Luther  the 
monk  and  Joe  Smith,  the  mercantile  bankrupt,  as  reli- 
gious reformers,  nor  is  there  less  disparity  between  Adam 
Smith  and  Henry  George  as  Political  Economists. 
The  different  behavior  of  Judas  Gaulonitis  and  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  touching  the  payment  of  the  tribute  money  to 
Caesar  will,  however,  best  illustrate  our  thought.  Judas, 
in  a  mood  of  patriotic  frenzy,  raised  a  revolt  on  the  tax 
question  and  lost  his  head  both  literally  and  metaphor- 
ically. 

Jesus,  when  the  tribute  was  demanded  of  him,  sent 
Simon  Peter  to  the  seashore  to  fetch  the  Roman  Stator 
from  the  fish's  mouth,  and  thus  satisfied  the  claim  of  the 
tax-gatherer.  The  sequel  showed  the  wisdom  of  his 
discrimination  between  things  sacred  and  secular.  The 
Judas  movement  proved  a  military  fiasco,  not  unlike  the 
adventure  of  the  younger  Napoleon  at  Strasburg,  or  the 
ill-starred  expedition  of  Lopez  for  the  conquest  of  Cuba. 
The  Jesus  movement,  on  the  contrary,  was  a  tidal  wave 
of  gracious  influence  which  has  fertilized  the  moral 


CHRIST    AND    CJESAR.  121 

• 

waste-places  of  the  earth,  and  has  steadily  uplifted 
humanity  through  all  the  Christian  Centuries. 

On  another  occasion,  when  Peter  in  his  impulsiveness 
drew  his  sword  and  smote  off  the  ear  of  Malchus,  Christ 
promptly  rebuked  the  impetuous  swordsman.  If  Peter's 
example  had  been  followed  by  the  other  disciples,  the 
infant  Christianity  might  have  exploded  in  a  third-class 
riot.  It  is  evident  from  these  illustrations  that  the  great 
Teacher  did  not  affect  such  convulsive  methods  of  moral 
reform  or  of  political  regeneration.  In  this  logical  con- 
nection, he  uttered  a  saying  weightier  even  than  his 
personal  example.  "  Render  unto  Caesar  the  things 
that  are  Caesar's  and  unto  God  the  things  that  are 
God's."  He  thereby  proclaimed  a  perpetual  divorce- 
ment between  Church  and  State,  and  set  the  seal  of  his 
condemnation  upon  every  phase  of  Erastianism  or  Ultra- 
montanism,  whether  in  Council,  Conference  or  General 
Assembly. 

During  the  three  years  of  His  public  ministry  He 
spoke  no  word  that  in  anywise  countenanced  the  Theo- 
cratic concept  of  human  government.  While  He  was 
fully  cognizant  of  the  drunkenness,  debauchery  and 
similar  evils  that  existed  amongst  all  classes,  He  at  no 
time  propounded  such  reformatory  plans,  and  proced- 
ures as  are  petted  and  patronized  by  the  current  philan- 
thropism  of  the  present  age.  His  righteous  soul  was 
neither  insensible  nor  indifferent  to  these  manifold  evils, 
but  he  knew  that  such  human  methods  were  tentative 
and  disappointing  in  their  outcome.  He  was  building 
for  all  time.  His  plans  had  a  vaster  scope  and  a  pro- 


122  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

• 

founder  significance.  On  many  occasions  He  reproved 
the  twelve  for  their  misapprehension  of  the  meaning 
of  His  Messiahship,  and  of  the  nature  of  His  coming 
kingdom.  In  reply  to  the  questionings  of  Pilate,  He 
said:  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world."  He  affirmed, 
with  emphasis,  that  it  came  "not  with  observation;" 
aye,  more  as  if  to  define  more  clearly  its  spiritual  nature, 
He  added,  "the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you."  He 
foresaw,  however,  the  unseemly  disputations  and  horrid 
wars  that  have  since  marred  the  history  of  the  Church, 
and  it  was  with  reference  to  these  that  He  likewise 
said,  "I  come  not  to  send  Peace  on  the  earth,  but  a 
sword."  Not  that  such  scenes  of  strife  and  bloodshed 
were  of  divine  appointment,  but  rather  the  product  of 
man's  perverseness.  Very  many  of  them  the  evil  fruit 
of  individual  selfishness  and  worldliness,  and  yet  more 
the  offspring  of  priestly  arrogance  and  ministerial  obtru- 
siveness. 

Hildebrand  was  no  more  a  bigot  than  Laud,  and  in 
their  lesser  sphere  the  Mathers  of  New  England  were 
not  a  whit  behind  the  English  Prelate  or  the  Roman 
Pontiff.  It  is  a  blunder  to  suppose  that  offensive  sacer- 
dotalism is  confined  to  any  class  of  the  clergy,  Catholic 
or  Protestant.  In  all  the  churches  there  are  clerical 
reformers  who  seem  to  forget  that  society  has  a  self- 
regulative  faculty  and  can  on  occasion  safely  dispense  with 
their  supervision.  The  Apostles  adjudged  it  wise  to 
give  themselves  "continually  to  the  word  of  God  and 
Prayer,"  while  "  the  serving  of  tables  "  was  committed 
to  seven  deacons  of  good  report.  Their  successors 


CHRIST    AND    C^SAR.  123 

would  do  well  to  respect  their  example,  and  leave  the 
work  of  statesmanship  to  those  who  are  presumably 
better  qualified  for  the  task.  In  saying  this  we  would 
not  unfairly  circumscribe  the  sphere  of  the  Christian 
ministry.  In  the  main,  these  men  of  God  keep  within 
the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Great  Commission.  A  very 
large  majority,  and  these  the  more  genuinely  and  thor- 
oughly cultured,  restrict  their  pulpit  discussions  to  such 
themes  as  Paul  discussed  at  Athens  and  Rome,  on 
Mars  Hill  and  in  his  own  hired  house.  If  others  are 
toying  with  "oppositions  of  Science,  falsely  so  called," 
their  profiting  does  not  appear  to  any,  much  less  to 
"all."  If  a  few  even  turn  aside  from  the  Gospel  to 
what  they  esteem  "live  issues,"  their  congregations 
suffer  loss. 

This  latter  class  of  divines  are  much  given  to  foolish 
boasting  over  the  achievements  of  "  Nineteenth  Century 
Civilization."  Forgetting,  if  indeed  they  ever  knew, 
that  the  present  culture  of  England,  Germany  and 
France  is  not  comparable  to  that  of  Athens,  when  the 
hucksters  of  the  market  place  corrected  the  Greek  pro- 
nunciation of  the  Roman  Atticus. 

A  late  writer  has  said  that  the  foremost  scientist  of 
the  present  day  compared  with  the  Stagarite  and  the 
Athenian  "is  an  intellectual  barbarian."  This  state- 
ment needs  but  little  qualification  as  respects  the  highest 
culture.  It  is  true  that  in  some  branches  of  applied 
science  there  has  been  notable  progress,  but  it  may  be 
gravely  questioned  if  Michael  Faraday  had  equal  mastery 
of  the  philosophy  of  Physics  with  Friar  Bacon,  of  Brazen 


124  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

Nose  notoriety.  Nor  is  it  quite  certain  that  with  all  our 
technological  training  we  are  even  abreast  of  the 'men 
who  built  the  Pyramids  and  constructed  the  hanging 
gardens  of  Babylon. 

Not  a  few  of  our  modern  discoveries  are  probably  but 
the  recovery  of  lost  arts. 

So,  likewise,  many  of  the  ethical  and  social  theories 
now  paraded  and  propagated  with  a  show  of  wisdom  are 
but  the  revival  of  fallacies  that  have  long  since  been 
tested  and  abandoned. 

Some  of  these  modern  reformers  roundly  assert  that 
the  Church,  by  which  is  meant  some  sort  of  ecclesiasti- 
cism,  must  dominate  everything.  This  dogma  embodies 
the  essence  of  ultramontanism,  and  would  satisfy  the 
demands  of  the  most  ambitious  Pontiff  that  ever  occu- 
pied the  chair  of  St.  Peter  at  Rome.  Practically  it 
would  subordinate  everything  and  everybody  to  clerical 
domination,  and  we  should  have  not  a  single  Pope,  but 
every  clergyman  in  Christendom  would  be  a  Pope  within 
his  own  petty  parish.  If  we  accept  this  theocratic  view 
of  government  it  will  require  a  hair-splitting  process  to 
differentiate  the  Protestantism  of  the  nineteenth  from 
the  Romanism  of  the  twelfth  century. 

This  sentiment  is  manifestly  of  the  same  character 
with  that  which  kindled  the  fires  of  Smithfield  ;  pro- 
duced the  Thirty  Years  War ;  invented  the  racks  and 
thumb-screws  of  the  Inquisition,  and,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  led  to  the  hanging  of  Quakers  and  Witches  on 
American  soil.  It  is  the  exponent  of  a  medieval  reli- 
gionism which,  if  unrebuked  and  unchecked,  will  work 


CHRIST    AND    CAESAR.  125 

out  its  legitimate  results  in  the  early  years  of  the  twen- 
tieth century.  The  surest  guarantee  against  the  evils 
to  which  we  have  referred  is  the  practical  observance  of 
Christ's  teaching  in  regard  to  the  separation  of  Church 
and  State. 

The  Christian  ministry  will  best  insure  its  success  by 
the  strict  avoidance  of  all  intermeddling  with  such  mat- 
ters as  properly  belong  to  Caesar's  domain. 

The  attempt  to  influence  legislative  bodies  in  secular 
matters,  whether  it  assume  the  shape  of  petition  or 
remonstrance,  is  sure  to  be  resented.  For  this  reason 
alone,  a  majority  of  the  late  North  Georgia  Annual 
Conference  wisely  refused  to  memorialize  the  State 
Legislature  in  regard  to  the  extension  of  the  school 
term.  The  impression  sought  to  be  made  that  this 
majority  were  hostile  to  popular  education  was  at  least 
disingenous  on  the  part  of  those  who  for  years  have 
been  either  outspoken  enemies  or  else  unconscious 
obstructionists  of  the  public  school  system.  Nor  does 
it  argue  well  for  their  statesmanship  that  they  utterly 
failed  to  understand  that  the  original  resolution,  if  not 
partisan,  was  at  least  thoroughly  political.  The  merest 
tyro  in  State-craft  is  presumed  to  know  that  the  taxing 
power  is  the  highest  function  of  Civil  Government. 
The  resolution,  as  first  reported  by  the  committee  on 
education,  involved  this  taxing  power  to  the  extent  of 
millions  of  dollars. 

The  "sympathy  resolution,"  which  was  accepted  as  a 
substitute,  was  at  most  a  piece  of  surplusage  that  neither 
helped  nor  hindered  legislative  action.  Some  increase 


126  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

of  the  appropriation  to  the  public  schools  was  assured 
before  the  assemblage  •  of  the  legislature.  The  late 
school  commissioner,  Dr.  Orr,  had  paved  the  way  for 
this  forward  movement  by  a  personal  and  persistent 
canvass  of  the  State,  running  through  a  series  of  years. 
Indeed,  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  he  would  have 
achieved  success  at  an  earlier  period  if  he  had  not  been 
embarrassed  by  the  carping  criticism  of  some  who  have 
latterly  posed  as  educationists.  Dr.  Orr  was  wise 
enough  to  appreciate  the  difficulties  growing  out  of  the 
impoverishment  of  the  South,  partly  by  Federal  spolia- 
tion and  hardly  less  by  the  disastrous  rule  of  know- 
nothings,  knaves  and  negroes.  He  never  at  any  time, 
however,  wholly  despaired  of  ultimate  success.  Whether 
this  legislative  provision,  or  even  a  much  larger  appro- 
priation, will  materially  benefit  the  improvident  black 
proletariat  in  our  midst,  is  more  than  questionable. 
The  efforts  in  this  direction  of  the  English  Government 
during  the  last  half-century,  both  in  the  West  Indies 
and  South  Africa,  have  proved  humiliating  failures. 
This  is  the  testimony  of  that  most  judicious  observer, 
James  Anthony  Froude,  who  cannot  be  suspected  of 
any  leaning  in  favor  of  Domestic  Slavery. 

The  experiment  in  Hayti  has  been  not  less  favorable 
to  the  advocates  of  Negro  education.  In  many  parts 
of  Hayti  and  Jamaica,  after  a  wasteful  expenditure  of 
money  and  missionary  labor,  the  results  are  quite 
unsatisfactory.  There  is  among  the  Negroes  an  alarming 
drift  towards  Vaudooism  and  to  gross  licentiousness  in 
morals.  The  presence  in  the  Southern  States  of  a  large 


CHRIST    AND    CAESAR.  I2/ 

white  population  will  of  necessity  modify  these  results. 
But  so  far  elementary  education  has  not  sensibly  pre- 
vented the  growth  of  crime  among  the  freedmen. 

Nor  has  the  effect  of  the  higher  Negro  education  in 
the  Southern  States  done  little  more  than  to  make  them 
self-assertive  and  aggressive.  There  are,  of  course,  indi- 
vidual exceptions,  but  the  main  body  who  have  mastered 
"a  little  Latin  and  less  Greek  "  have  become  ward  pol- 
iticians and  place-hunters.  Asa  "bread-winner"  the 
the  educated  Negro  is  far  below  the  plane  of  the  old 
plantation  darkies. 

For  ourself,  we  are  willing  to  leave  this  whole  matter 
to  the  Berners,  Clays,  Glenns,  and  others  who  are 
better  fitted  by  training  for  the  work  of  legislation.  The 
fact  that  there  is  a  moral  side  to  the  educational  ques- 
tion, is  of  no  weight  in  the  controversy.  Every  political 
issne,  from  Tariff  Reform  to  the  schedule  of  a  narrow 
guage  railway,  may  impinge  somewhere  on  a  moral 
question.  So  that  it  will  be  readily  seen  that  this  kind 
of  logic  will  open  a  wide  door  to  a  pragmatism  which 
will  secularize  the  pulpit  and  in  no  small  degree  destroy 
its  proper  influence  with  the  laity. 

Nor  will  this  wise  abstinence  of  the  clergy  from  the 
discussion  of  questions  that  properly  belong  to  another 
forum  affect  in  anywise  their  rights  of  citizenship.  It 
will  neither  curtail  their  freedom  of  speech  at  right 
times  and  places,  nor  impair  their  franchise  to  vote 
according  to  their  convictions.  We  arc  quite  sure  that 
no  responsible  layman  has  any  desire  to  invade  their 
jurisdiction  as  originally  defined  by  the  divine  founder 


128  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

of  the  Church.  On  the  other  hand,  enlightened  public 
opinion  will  condemn  such  intermeddling  with  State 
matters  as  was  recently  attempted  by  a  bevy  of  North- 
ern Methodist  preachers  with  teferenceto  the  late  inaugu- 
ration ceremonies  in  Washington.  There  is  but  another 
step  and  we  reach  that  stage  of  Puritanism  when  attend- 
ance on  church  services  was  made  compulsory,  and 
Blindman's  Buff  was  fiercely  denounced  as  a  perilous  fire- 
side amusement. 

This  introduces  the  further  statement  that  very  much 
of  this  ministerial  aggressiveness  has  its  origin  and 
inspiration  from  the  Methodist  pulpits  of  New  England, 
which  largely  represent  the  lower  stratum  of  society  in 
that  region. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  the  redoubtable 
Don  Quixote  mounted  his  world  famed  Rosinante  and 
went  forth  in  quest  of  adventures  that  the  worshipful 
Sancho  Panza  astride  of  Dapple  was  seen  ambling  along 
at  his  heels. 

Something  of  a  like  kind  is  often  witnessed  in  the 
South  at  the  present  day.  The  Methodist  Preachers' 
meeting  of  New  York  or  Boston  starts  a  moral  crusade 
in  behalf  of  Woman  Suffrage,  or  Moral  Purity,  or  it 
may  be  a  constitutional  amendment  for  enforcing  Sun- 
day observance.  Again,  some  prominent  Northern 
Clergyman  will  howl  in  the  most  approved  fashion 
about  the  perils  of  illiteracy,  or  the  growth  of  Roman- 
ism. This  Peripatetic  philanthropism  sets  out  on  a  con- 
tinental tour,  embracing  the  lately  "  rebellious  States." 
Straightway  a  class  of  Southern  disciples,  who  think  by 


CHRIST    AND    CLESAR.  1 29 

proxy  begin  to  echo  the  refrain  through  the  press,   and 
even  from  the  pulpit. 

Soon  societies  and  associations  are  organized — tracts 
distributed  and  a  lot  of  elsewise  unsalable  books  are 
hawked  through  the  country  to  the  emolument  of  New 
England  authors  and  publishers.  In  this  way  many 
fairly  intelligent  people  are  ready  to  conclude  that  we 
are  continually  on  the  verge  of  a  crisis  that  will  shake 
the  continent  from  Alaska  to  the  Florida  Keys. 

Our  science  of  government  is  just  now  in  the  condi- 
tion of  Geology  when  the  Huttonian  and  Wernerian 
factions  were  striving  for  the  mastery.  We  greatly 
need  some  broad-minded  Statesman  who  will  do  for  the 
former  science  what  Sir  Charles  Lyell  did  for  the  latter. 
Men  like  Dr.  Josiah  Strong,  author  of  "Our  Country", 
are  not  less  moral  cranks  than  is  Rev.  Ira  Hicks,  a 
meteorlogical  dunder-head  with  his  Jovian  Periods,  and 
other  trumpery  of  a  defunct  Astrology. 

One  of  the  sorest  evils  of  the  times  is  over  much 
legislation.  Abbe  Sieyes,  the  constitution  builder  of 
Revolutionary  France  was  a  renegade  Romish  Priest. 
He  is,  however  none  the  less  a  fitting  type  of  many  of 
our  Modern  ministerial  reformers,  who  seek  to  regene- 
rate the  world,  neither  by  blood  nor  water,  but  by 
legislative  tinkering.  Sieyes  is  said  to  have  kept  his 
portmanteau  full  of  ready-made  National  Constitutions — 
so  his  successors  of  this  day  carry  about  a  full  stock  of 
schemes  for  remodelling  society  and  bringing  in  a  politi- 
cal millenium.  Hitherto  their  prophecies  have  been 
Delphic  oracles  ' '  that  palter  with  us  in  a  double  sense. " 


130  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

Not  argument  nor  ridicule  but  time  alone  will  cure  the 
evil  under  discussion.  We  write  these  things  solely  for 
the  honor  of  Christ  and  the  welfare  of  the  church. 

It  is  no  disparagement  of  the  acknowledged  piety  and 
learning  of  the  clergy  to  say  that  few  of  their  number 
are  likely  to  contribute  anything  really  valuable  to  the 
solution  of  the  various  social  and  political  problems  of 
the  times. 

A  wiser  method  therefore  is  to  obey  Paul's  exhortation 
to  Timothy — PREACH  THE  WORD.  That  was  the  secret 
of  the  earliest  triumphs  of  Christianity,  and  will  be  the 
secret  of  its  latter-day  glory.  Indeed,  if  the  Gospel  to 
which  the  clergy  have  solemnly  consecrated  their  lives 
is  not  shorn  of  its  old-time  power,  then  it  has  in  itself  a 
redemptive  force  far  exceeding  that  of  any  sort  of  semi- 
political  propagandi^m. 

The  history  of  the  Church  abounds  with  warnings 
against  "entangling  alliances"  with  the  affairs  of  the 
Commonwealth.  Such  alliances,  like  the  forbidden  fel- 
lowship of  Christ  and  Belial,  are  never  helpful  to  true 
moral  reform  and  always  hurtful  to  the  spirituality  of 
the  Church. 

Let  our  ministers  therefore  give  earnest  heed  to  the 
Master's  teaching,  "  Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that 
are  Caesar's,  and  unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's." 
Should  they  prefer  the  same  practical  lesson  in  a  differ- 
ent form,  we  remind  them  of  the  classical  adage,  "Let 
the  cobbler  stick  to  his  last." 


UNSUCCESSFUL  REVOLUTIONS. 


UNSUCCESSFUL  REVOLUTIONS. 


Dr.  McCosh,  in  his  learned  treatise  on  Typical  Forms 
and  Special  Ends  in  Creation,  remarks  that  there  are 
many  germs,  both  in  the  animal  and  vegetable  king- 
doms, that  never  develop  into  perfect  forms.  As  an 
illustration  of  this  law  of  the  organic  world  he  refers 
to  the  roe  of  a  codfish  and  the  boughs  of  an  English 
apple-tree. 

The  same  great  law  applies  to  the  religious  and  politi- 
cal movements  which  have  marked  the  history  of  man- 
kind. For  one  religious  reformer  who,  like  Luther  or 
Loyola,  has  stamped  the  institutions  of  an  age  or  a  con- 
tinent with  the  impress  of  his  own  genius,  there  are  a 
score  who  have  labored  in  vain  and  at  last  have  died  and 
"made  no  sign."  So,  likewise,  with  those  political 
reformers  who  have  headed  revolutionary  movements. 
The  track  of  the  centuries  is  strewn  with  the  wrecks  of 
these  gigantic  enterprises.  William  of  Orange  and  our 
own  immortal  Washington  were  successful,  and  pos- 
terity has  canonized  their  memories ;  but  Sidney  perished 
on  the  scaffold,  Kossuth  was  driven  into  exile,  and 
Davis  was  thrust  into  the  inner  prison ;  and  while  now 
spending  his  last  years  at  Beauvoir,  he  is  still  under  the 
"ban  of  the  empire." 

It  can  not  have  escaped  the  attentive  student  of  his- 
tory that,  in  political  revolutions,  failure  is  the  rule  and 


132  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

success  is  the  exception.  This  fact  may,  in  part,  be 
accounted  for  on  the  ground  that  all  experience  shows 
that  men  will  suffer  great  evils  rather  than  "  abolish  the 
forms  to  which  they  are  accustomed.7'  The  masses, 
everywhere,  are  slow  to  relinquish  ancient  usages ;  and 
in  some  instances  this  obstinate  conservatism  has  defeated 
the  most  salutary  reforms.  It  required  centuries  of  mis- 
rule, characterized  by  every  species  of  feudal  oppression, 
to  arouse  the  Parisian  populace  to  vengeance  :  it  needed 
also  the  Star  Chamber,  the  levy  of  ship-money,  and  the 
arbitrary  arrests  of  Charles  Stuart,  to  awaken  the  storm 
that  swept  away  for  a  season  every  vestige  of  the  Eng- 
lish monarchy.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  therefore, 
that  revolutions  are  frequently  unpopular,  and,  as  a  con- 
sequence, unsuccessful.  We  propose  to  consider  a  few 
prominent  examples  of  this  class. 

The  Hungarian  revolution  of  1848  was  one  which 
riveted  the  gaze  of  Europe  and  America.  Hungary 
had  always  been  distinguished  for  its  steadfast  loyalty 
to  the  House  of  Hapsburg.  Nowhere  is  there  recorded 
a  more  touching  scene  than  that  of  Maria  Theresa  and 
and  her  infant  heir  before  the  Hungarian  Diet.  Pressed 
as  she  was  by  a  foul  conspiracy  of  crowned  heads,  she 
appealed  to  the  nobles  and  deputies  of  Hungary  for 
succor  and  support.  In  response  to  her  trustful  appeal, 
those  stern-browed  representatives  of  a  gallant  people 
grasped  their  sword  hilts  and  simultaneously  exclaimed, 
"We  will  die  for  Maria  Theresa — our  king  !" 

We  may  be  sure  that  only  a  long  series  of  cruel  exac- 
tions could  utterly  stifle  this  sentiment  of  loyalty. 


UNSUCCESSFUL    REVOLUTIONS.  133 

Hungary  was  misgoverned — her  chartered  rights  were 
invaded — her  ancient  privileges  were  disregarded — until 
the  name  of  a  Hapsburg  became  the  synonym  of 
treachery,  and  the  Austrian  Government  itself  a  stench 
in  the  nostrils  of  the  Magyar. 

Inspired  by  the  eloquence  of  Louis  Kossuth,  the 
Hungarians  flew  to  arms;  and  nobly  did  they  battle  for 
the  constitutional  liberties  of  Fatherland.  But  the  dis- 
affection of  Croatia,  and  the  treason  of  Gorgey  com- 
pleted the  overthrow  of  Kossuth  and  his  compatriots. 
Haynau  glutted  his  appetite  for  murder,  and  the  waters 
of  the  Drave  and  the  Danube  were  dyed  with  the  blood 
of  heroes. 

Ireland,  too,  has  made  more  than  one  unsuccessful 
attempt  at  revolution.  From  the  day  when  Cromwell 
slaughtered  her  innocents,  she  has  been  impatient  of 
Saxon  domination.  In  1798,  she  planned  a  general 
uprising  which  might  have  succeeded  but  for  treachery 
in  the  camp  and  the  unaccountable  failure  of  the  French 
to  second  her  efforts.  The  enterprise  was  crushed  in  its 
inception  ;  and  Norbury  repeated  on  Irish  soil  the  bloody 
assizes  of  Jeffries. 

And  yet  Ireland  is  unsubdued.  She  still  seizes, every 
opportunity  to  shake  the  yoke  from  her  neck  ;  and  who 
can  tell  but  that,  through  native  courage  or  foreign 
diplomacy,  Irish  nationality  will  yet  triumph,  as  Italian 
nationality  has  triumphed  after  its  slumber  of  a  thous- 
and years? 

Poland  is  another  of  the  downtrodden  nations.  How 
has  she  fallen  from  her  high  estate  since  kings  competed 


134  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

for  her  crown,  and  John  Sobieski,  her  chivalric  monarch, 
led  the  van  of  Christendom  in  its  conflict  with  the  infidel 
Turk  !  Dismembered  and  despoiled  by  kingly  intrigue, 
she  has  at  different  periods  struggled  to  burst  the  bonds 
of  her  thraldom.  But  Kosciusko  bled  in  vain :  order 
still  reigns  in  Warsaw  ;  and  her  nobles  and  sons  languish 
in  exile,  or  perish  by  piecemeal  in  the  mines  of  Siberia. 
Poland  is  blotted  out  from  the  map  of  Europe.  But  it 
may  happen  in  the  movements  of  the  political  chess- 
board that  the  reconstruction  of  the  kingdom  of  Poland 
may  be  necessary  to  checkmate  the  Czar.  As  in  a  for- 
mer century  Poland  preserved  Western  Europe  from 
the  yoke  of  Islamism,  so  in  another  century  it  may 
serve  as  a  huge  break-water  against  the  inroads  of  Rus- 
sian absolutism. 

Another  example  of  unsuccessful  revolution  was  the 
struggle  of  the  Confederate  States  for  a  separate  nation- 
ality. The  events  of  that  struggle  are  too  fresh  in  our 
memories  to  require  recital.  The  lack  of  earnest  co-opera- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  border  States,  and  the  presence 
of  a  distinct  and  disaffected  race  in  our  midst,  were  the 
chief  causes  of  failure.  Never  was  a  cause  more  heroic- 
ally maintained  against  overwhelming  odds ;  and, 
although  vanquished  in  the  end,  the  South  need  not  be 
ashamed  of  her  military  achievements.  The  fame  of 
Jackson  and  Lee,  and  Johnston,  will  live  in  story  and 
in  song  as  long  as  the  Father  of  Waters  rolls  his  tribute 
waves  to  the  Gulf. 

Being  defeated,  the  South  quietly  submitted  to  the 
authority  of  the  Federal  Government.  Her  swords 


UNSUCCESSFUL    REVOLUTIONS.  135 

were  beaten  into  plowshares,  and  her  spears  into  prun- 
ing-hooks.  Her  Lee,  who  once  marshaled  her  mightiest 
army  devoted  his  remaining  years  to  the  task  of  colle- 
giate instruction ;  her  Forrest,  so  dauntless  in  the  com- 
bat, embarked  in  the  sugar  and  cotton  trade ;  her  Gordon, 
covered  over  with  honorable  scars,  has  ably  served  in 
the  councils  of  the  nation  and  is  now  the  honored  Chief 
Magistrate  of  his  native  State.  Others  of  her  favorite 
leaders  are  at  the  bar  or  on  the  bench,  while  the  rank  and 
file  of  her  disbanded  armies  are  laboring  to  repair  the 
injuries  which  ruthless  war  has  inflicted  on  their  section. 
Amongst  these  noble  men  there  is  no  silly  bravado — no 
unmanly  whimpering.  Faithful  to  their  oaths,  they 
are  honest  in  their  support  of  the  constitution  and  laws. 
Earnest  as  they  were  in  their  efforts  for  Southern  inde- 
pendence, they  are  now  equally  so  in  their  purpose 
to  uphold  the  Union.  A  prescriptive  policy  on  the 
part  of  the  National  Government  may  in  some  degree 
alienate  them  from  that  Government,  but  it  will  not 
drive  them  into  revolution.  On  the  other  hand,  a  liberal 
policy  will  bind  them  to  the  Government  with  ' '  hooks 
of  steel."  They  will  rally  to  its  defense  whenever  its 
honor  is  impeached,  or  its  safety  imperiled.  In  this 
way  the  Federal  Union  will  be  stronger  in  the  hearts  of 
the  Southern  people  than  at  any  former  period.  The 
mutual  wrongs  and  sufferings  of  both  sections  shall  be 
remembered  with  regret.  The  fame  for  valor  and  endu- 
rance which  each  has  worthily  won,  will  be  the  common 
property  of  all.  National  unity  shall  no  longer  be  a 
myth,  but  a  reality  ;  and  from  the  Aroostook  to  the 


136  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

Rio  del  Norte,  every  foot  "  shall  keep  step  to  the  music 
of  the  Union." 

Heaven  forbid  that  through  the  perverseness  or  the 
more  desperate  wickedness  of  selfish  politicians  all  this 
should  be  reversed  ;  that,  instead  of  this  spectacle  of 
fraternity  and  prosperity,  we  should  have  strife  and  dis- 
cord, until  the  ship  of  State  itself  shall  founder  amidst 
the  darkness  and  tempest  of  another  more  sanguinary 
and  more  successful  revolution. 


STONEWALL    JACKSON. 


STONEWALL  JACKSON, 


A     MONOGRAPH. 

It  is  no  small  proof  of  the  divine  origin  of  Christ- 
ianity that  it  is  so  exactly  adapted  to  every  condition  of 
life  and  to  every  honorable  business  pursuit  in  which 
men  can  engage.  While,  therefore,  it  has  won  its  noblest 
victories  amongst  the  common  people,  it  has  not  failed 
to  exert  a  marked  influence  on  the  more  cultivated  minds 
of  Christendom.  And  while,  too,  it  is  essentially  a 
religion  of  peace,  yet  some  of  its  most  illustrious 
examples  have  been  amongst  men  of  arms,  whose  lives 
have  been  spent  amidst  the  dissipations  of  the  camp 
and  the  excitements  of  the  battlefield. 

Foremost  amongst  these  Christian  warriors,  was  Lieu- 
tenant-General  T.  J.  Jackson,  of  the  late  Confederate 
Army.  With  more  tenderness  than  Cromwell — more 
genius  than  Havelock — more  prudence  and  circumspec- 
tion than  Gustavus  Adolphus — he  combined  in  his  own 
person  the  better  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  of  all 
of  them,  and  died  as  he.  lived,  without  an  imputation 
on  his  Christian  integrity,  and  without  a  stain  on  his 
soldierly  honor. 

The  first  military  service  of  Jackson  was  at  the  siege  of 
Vera  Cruz,  as  second  lieutenant  of  artillery.  He  is 
represented  to  have  handled  his, battery  with  marked 


138  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

skill  and  efficiency.  In  the  subsequent  brief  but  glori- 
ous campaign,  he  fought  with  signal  gallantry  and  during 
its  progress,  was  breveted  Major  for  his  ' '  mei  itorious 
conduct." 

Soon  after  the  restoration  of  peace,  his  health  having 
partially  failed,  he  resigned  his  commission  in  the  army. 
At  a  later  period  he  was  elected  to  the  chair  of  Chemis- 
try and  Natural  Science  in  the  Virginia  Military  Insti- 
tute. He  occupied  this  position  at  the  commencement 
of  our  revolutionary  struggle  and  was  one  of  the  earliest 
to  tender  his  sword  to  Virginia,  when  that  State  had 
resolved  to  share  the  fortunes  of  the  South  in  the  com- 
ing contest.  Here  the  career  of  Stonewall  Jackson 
properly  begins.  Instead,  however,  of  attempting  a 
recital  of  his  military  achievements,  we  propose  rather 
a  brief  study  of  his  character  as  a  warrior,  a  Christian, 
and  a  man  Under  each  of  these  three  aspects  we  shall 
find  much  that  claims  our  admiration  and  deserves  our 
imitation. 

As  a  warrior,  Stonewall  Jackson  was  not  unlike  Frede- 
rick of  Prussia.  Indeed,  his  tactics  throughout  his 
famous  Valley  campaigns  remind  us  of  some  of  the 
masterly  strategic  movements  of  Frederick  during  his 
seven  years'  struggle  with  the  most  formidable  coalition 
of  modern  times. 

Jackson  mobilized  his  forces  more  thoroughly  than  any 
captain  since  the  days  of  Hannibal.  He  depended  less 
on  quartermasters  and  commissaries  than  any  other 
commander,  Federal  or  Confederate.  He  encumbered 
himself  with  no  interminable  wagon  trains,  but  much 


STONEWALL    JACKSON.  139 

of  the  time  subsisted  on  supplies  captured  from  the 
enemy.  So  notorious  was  this  fact  that  General  Banks 
won  the  unenviable  sobriquet  of  "Stonewall  Jackson's 
Commissary." 

This  was  partly  the  secret  of  those  rapid  marches, 
almost  magical  in  their  execution,  and  literally  marvel- 
lous in  their  results  By  dint  of  his  indomitable  energy, 
he  time  and  again  forestalled  his  adversary,  secured  the 
vantage  ground,  and  thus  insured  the  victory.  It  not 
infrequently  occurred  that  when  his  opponent  was 
expecting  him  in  front,  he  came  thundering  like  an 
avalanche  on  his  unguarded  flank  or  rear. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  much  Sherman 
was  indebted  for  the  idea  of  his  brilliant  flank  move- 
ments to  what  he  had  read  or  heard  of  Jackson's  opera- 
tions in  Virginia.  We  regard  it  as  morally  certain 
that  he  was  a  copyist,  successful,  it  is  true,  but  not  equal 
to  the  great  original.  Jackson  was  not  less  distinguished 
for  his  stubborn  fighting  qualities'than  for  his  strategy. 
He  exhibited  these  at  Falling  Water,  when,  in  the  first 
months  of  the  struggle,  he  kept  Patterson's  entire  army 
at  bay  with  a  single  regiment.  It  was  his  steady,  per- 
sistent fighting,  against  the  heaviest  odds,  that  secured 
for  him  the  title  of  Stonewall  on  the  battlefield  of  Manas- 
sas.  It  has  been  alleged  that  Jackson  was  the  only  man 
in  the  army,  who,  if  he  had  been  living,  would  have 
carried  and  held  Cemetery  Hill  at  Gettysburg.  It  was 
in  these  desperate  struggles  for  important  positions  that 
his  intrepidity  was  most  conspicuous  ;  and,  whether 
true  or  false,  the  South  will  always  believe  that  if  her 


I4O  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

favorite  hero  had  not  previously  fallen  in  her  defense, 
Lee  would  have  triumphed  at  Gettysburg,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  planted  his  standard  on  the  dome  of  the 
Federal  Capitol. 

Jackson  was  never  satisfied  with  a  doubtful  victory. 
He  struggled  harder  to  complete  than  to  commence  it. 
When  the  tide  of  battle  turned  in  his  favor,  he  redoubled 
his  efforts,  pressed  his  antagonist  more  vigorously,  and, 
as  we  have  elsewhere  said,  generally  managed  to  con- 
vert a  defeat  into  a  disastrous  rout. 

It  only  needs  to  be  remarked  that  he  never  suffered  a 
serious  reverse,  much  less  a  downright  defeat.  His 
presence  was  a  sure  presage  of  victory,  and  both  at 
Manassas  and  at  Sharpsburg  he  changed  the  fortunes 
of  the  fight  by  his  single  arm.  When  his  military 
record  is  fully  understood,  he  will  rank  in  the  world's 
estimation  with  the  foremost  chieftains  in  the  annals  of 
warfare. 

But  Jackson  was  more  than  a  soldier ;  he  was  a  Christ- 
ian of  the  noblest  stamp.  In  his  theology  he  is  said  to 
have  been  as  thorough  a  Calvinist  as  the  sturdiest  sup- 
porter of  the  solemn  League  and  Covenant.  It  has 
even  been  insinuated  that  he  was  a  Fatalist  in  his  creed. 
We  are  satisfied  that  he  could  never  h'ave  embraced  a 
dogma  so  flatly  absurd.  There  is  no  doubt,  however, 
that  he  was  a  firm  believer  in  a  special  Providence  that 
subordinates  all  second  causes  to  its  own  ends  and  directs 
all  events  to  the  accomplishment  of  its  own  beneficent 
purposes. 

This  faith  may  have  inspired  him  with  a  more  unwaver- 


STONEWALL    JACKSON.  14! 

ing  trust  under  the  pressure  of  calamities,  and  with  a 
sublimer  courage  in  the  midst  of  perils.  Certain  it  is 
that  a  similar  conviction  animated  the  Ironsides  of  Crom- 
well when  they  fought  at  Worcester  and  Marston  Moor, 
and  stimulated  the  Huguenots  when  they  followed 
the  snow-white  plume  of  Navarre  in  the  memorable  bat- 
tle of  Ivry.  A  perversion  of  this  sentiment  gave  to 
Islamism  its  most  brilliant  victories,  and  made  the  sword 
of  Khaled  almost  as  mighty  as  the  sword  of  Gideon. 
We  may  differ  from  these  speculative  tenets  of  Jackson, 
but  we  must  admire  the  devotional  character  of  his 
religion.  Suwarrow  is  said  to  have  spent  the  e_rly 
hours  of  the  morning  in  prayer,  and  Lord  Nelson  wrote 
in  his  diary  the  beautiful  prayer  which  he  offered  just 
before  the  victory  of  Trafalgar. 

If  we  may  credit  the  testimony  of  his  most  intimate 
friends,  Stonewall  Jackson  was  likewise  a  man  of  prayer. 
On  the  eve  of  every  great  battle  he  was  accustomed  to 
retire  to  his  tent,  or  to  some  green  and  sheltered  nook 
of  the  forest,  and  there  commend  his  country  and  its 
cause  to  God.  At  such  times  he  wrestled  as  Jacob  did 
at  Peniel,  or  as  John  Knox  afterwards  did  when,  in  an 
agony  of  supplication,  he  exclaimed,  "Oh!  Lord  God, 
give  me  Scotland,  or  I  die."  The  skeptic  may  scoff  at 
these  strong  cries  and  earnest  prayers  of  this  great  and 
good  man,  but  the  enlightened  patriot  will  esteem  them 
of  greater  worth  than  a  host  of  armed  men 

It  remains  for  us  to  speak  of  him  as  a  man.  "No 
man, "  says  a  hackneyed  proverb,  ' '  is  a  hero  to  his  valet 
de  chambre"  Jackson  was  an  exception  to  this  general 


142  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

truth  Those  with  whom  he  was  in  most  frequent  and 
familiar  converse  were  most  impressed  by  his  greatness. 
Ordinarly,  however,  he  was  simple  even  to  plainness  in 
his  dress,  and  when  rigged  out  in  his  faded  uniform  and 
black  slouched  hat,  he  looked  more  like  a  thrifty  Vir- 
ginia farmer  than  the  Jupiter  Tonans  of  the  Confederate 
army.  There  was  that  in  Jackson,  nevertheless,  which 
challenged  the  respect  and  claimed  the  obedience  of 
men.  With  no  great  attention  to  the  details  of  discipline, 
he  notwithstanding  kept  his  troops  in  the  best  fighting 
trim.  His  original  "Stonewall"  brigade,  which  received 
its  mould  and  fashion  from  his  own  master-mind,  will 
rank  in  history  with  the  Tenth  Legion  of  Caesar,  and 
the  Old  Guard  of  Napoleon. 

No  man  could  have  exercised  such  an  influence  over 
large  bodies  of  men,  unless  he  was  endowed  with  those 
personal  qualities  which  endear  as  well  as  awe.  Jackson 
possessed  those  qualities  in  no  ordinary  degree.  Under 
his  rugged  exterior  there  was  concealed  a  heart  almost 
womanly  in  its  tenderness.  Not  otherwise  can  we 
account  for  the  fact  that  beardless  boys — many  of  them 
but  raw  recruits — would  follow  him  in  his  winter  march  to 
the  Potomac,  and  that  the  same  class  at  Manassas  and 
Chancellorsville  fought  under  his  leadership  with  the 
steadiness  of  veterans.  So  enthusiastic,  indeed,  was 
the  attachment  of  our  whole  army  in  Virginia  to  this 
great  man,  that  whenever  he  rode  along  the  lines,  they 
made  the  welkin  ring  with  their  hearty  huzzas.  How 
mysterious  the  Providence  that  deprived  the  South  of 
his  services  at  a  time  when  they  were  most  needed ! 


STONEWALL    JACKSON.  143 

Near  the  close  of  the  battle  at  Chancellorsville,  he 
received  his  death-wound — whether  from  friend  or  foe 
is  still  a  vexed  question. 

His  last  hours  were  in  beautiful  harmony  with  his  life. 
They  are  suggestive,  too,  of  the  most  touching  memo- 
ries. As  the  great  Napoleon  lay  dying  in  his  sea-girt 
prison  his  mind  wandered  back  to  Austerlitz  and  Lodi, 
and  his  last  utterance,  Tete  d'  Armee,  bespoke  the  hero 
of  a  hundred  victories ;  so  Jackson,  as  his  mind  wan- 
dered in  the  delirium  of  death,  thought  himself  once 
more  amidst  the  shouting  of  the  captains  and  the  neigh- 
ing of  war-steeds.  ''Tell  A.  P.  Hill  to  prepare  for 
action,"  said  the  dying  hero.  But  there  were^tenderer 
emotions  welling  up  in  his  heart.  He  thought  of  his 
gallant  troops,  weary  and  faint  with  the  fatigues  of  the 
march  or  the  strife  of  the  battle.  "Send  provisions 
forward  to  the  men,"  he  murmured  as  he  lay  in  a  half- 
conscious  state.  "  A  change  came  o'er  the  spirit  of  his 
dream,"  and  now  his  mind  reverted  to  his  quiet  village 
home ;  and  turning  to  one  of  his  attendants,  he  said 
audibly,  "  Bury  me  at  Lexington,  in  the  Valley  of  Vir- 
ginia." Afterwards  he  grows  weaker  with  every  breath — 
the  shadows  of  the  grave  thicken  around  him — when  a 
vision  of  surpassing  beauty  and  brilliancy  breaks  on  the 
departing  soul  of  the  Christian  hero.  A  noble  river  flows 
at  his  feet.  On  the  farther  bank  are  trees  of  beauty,  and 
flowers  of  matchless  hue  and  fragrance.  He  seems  for 
a  moment  to  gaze  wistfully  on  the  scene,  and  then  utters 
softly  those  sweet  last  words,  ' '  Let  us  cross  over  the 
river  and  rest  in  the  shade  of  the  trees."  The  eagle 


144  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

A 

eye  is  now  quenched  and  the  lion  heart  is  still ;  hence- 
forth the  war-worn  chieftain  is  numbered  with  God's 
"  saints  in  glory  everlasting."  How  much  grander 
such  a  departure  than  that  which  Scott  has  conceived 
for  the  hero  of  Flodden  Field,  when 

''With  dying  hand  above  his  head 
He  shook  the  fragment  of  his  blade, 
And  shouted  victory !" 

How  much  more  impressive  even  than  the  last  moments 
of  Wolfe  on  the  Heights  of  Abraham,  or  than  those  of 
Nelson  as  he  died  on  the  quarter-deck  of  his  flag-ship  ! 
By  a  majority  of  his  countrymen  his  death  was  regarded 
as  a  fatal  blow  to  the  Confederacy.  His  name  alone 
was  a  "tower  of  strength"  to  the  cause;  his  presence 
was  as  inspiring  as  the  bugle  blast  of  Roderick  Dhu, 
while  his  wonderful  ability  could  not  be  replace!  or 
substituted.  Even  his  enemies  honored  his  memory 
with  tears  and  plaudits.  As  for  the  sorrow  of  the  South, 
it  can  only  be  likened  to  that  which  marked  the  untimely 
death  of  William  of  Orange,  of  which  it  was  so  eloquently 
said  ' '  that  strong  men  wept  like  women,  and  the  little  chil- 
dren cried  in  the  sheets." 


OUR    INDIAN    TRIBES— THEIR    DESTINY.  145 


OUR  INDIAN  TRIBES— THEIR  DESTINY, 


Less  than  three  centuries  have  elapsed  since  the  cava- 
lier settlement  at  Jamestown  and  the  landing  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  at  Plymouth.  And  yet  in  that  period 
what  vast  changes  have  been  wrought  on  the  American 
continent. 

This  was  then  a  new  world  to  the  European.  Immense 
forests  covered  its  broad  area,  and  populous  tribes  of 
Indians  fished  and  hunted  where  now  are  bustling  marts 
and  waving  harvest  fields.  In  the  present  territory  of 
New  York  were  found  the  powerful  Six  Nations,  the 
-earliest  example  of  an  American  Confederacy.  Penn- 
sylvania and  a  portion  of  the  adjacent  States  were  occu- 
pied by  the  peaceful  Delawares.  New  England  had  its 
remnant  of  Pequods  and  Naragansetts,  South  Carolina 
was  in  possession  of  the  Catawbas  and  Tuscaroras,  the 
latter  of  whom  subsequently  migrated  northward.  Geor- 
gia and  Alabama  were  inhabited  by  the  warlike  Creeks 
and  more  civilized  Cherokees.  The  Chickasaws  were 
still  farther  towards  the  setting  sun,  and  the  boundless 
prairies  west  of  the  Mississippi  were  the  abode  of  Apa- 
ches, Camanches,  Sioux,  and  the  degraded  Crow  and 
Digger  tribes. 

It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  the  aggregate  number  of 
these  numerous  tribes.  Very  probably  they  did  not 
-exceed  the  present  population  of  New  York. 


146  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

From  a  variety  of  causes,  however,  they  have  steadily 
diminished,  until  now  they  are  less  than  a  half  million. 
A  feeble  remnant  of  once  powerful  tribes  have  been 
colonized  in  the  Indian  Territory.  These  have  been 
inscructed  in  the  arts  of  civilization,  and  have  their 
churches  and  school  houses.  They  send  their  delegate 
to  Congress,  and  are  pensioned  from  the  national  treas- 
ury. Theirs  is,  at  best,  however,  a  sickly  existence,, 
and  they  seem  less  at  ease  than  when  they  built  their 
rude  wigwams  on  the  banks  of  the  Etowah,  and  kindled 
their  council  fires  on  the  shores  of  the  Savannah. 

The  great  body  of  Indians  are  in  the  northwest,  and 
these  tribes  are  far  more  savage  and  far  more  ferocious 
than  any  of  the  eastern  tribes.  They  are  now  making  a 
desperate  yet  fruitless  struggle  against  the  advancing: 
tide  of  western  civilization. 

The  occasional  Indian  disturbances  in  the  northwest 
only  constitute  a  single  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
aborigines  of  this  continent.  Indian  wars  form  the 
staple  of  our  colonial  history ;  and  from  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Federal  Government  until  the  present  hour 
we  have  had  strife  and  bloodshed  whenever  and  wherever 
the  two  races  have  been  brought  into  contact.  How- 
ever well  we  may  philosophize  about  the  brotherhood 
of  man,  the  records  of  frontier  warfare,  accompanied  as 
it  has  been,  by  the  indiscriminate  slaughter  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  show  the  fixed  antagonism  if  not 
inextinguishable  enmity  that  exists  between  the  red  man 
and  the  white  man. 

It  may  be  that  the  selfishness  of  the  white  man  has. 


OUR    INDIAN    TRIBES THEIR     DESTINY.  147 

as  much  to  do  in  precipitating  these  conflicts  as  either 
the  treachery  of  the  Indian  or  the  mere  instincts  of  his 
race. 

No  conscientious  man  can  wholly  approve  of  the 
policy  of  the  Government  towards  the  Indian  tribes. 
In  the  main  generous  and  conciliatory,  it  has,  neverthe- 
less, at  times,  been  alternately  perfidious  and  vindictive. 
Claiming,  by  virtue  of  discovery,  the  right  of  eminent 
domain  in  the  soil,  we  have,  as  suited  our  convenience, 
and  even  caprice,  expelled  the  Indian  from  his  ancient 
inheritance.  This  has  sometimes  chafed  him  to  despera- 
tion, and  Wyoming  and  Roanoke  massacres  have  been 
the  result.  Then  swift  retribution  has  followed,  and  the 
wasted  tribes  have  been  pressed  backward  across  the 
Father  of  Waters,  and  even  to  the  eastern  gorges  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains. 

We  are  not  blind  to  the  bad  qualities  of  the  race. 
The  lordly  savage  which  drawing-room  poets  depict  in 
Hiawathian  numbers,  or  that  juvenile  artists  portray  in 
all  the  glory  of  flaunting  feathers  and  embroidered  moc- 
casins, is  a  very  different  being  from  the  dark-browed 
bandit  that  prowls  over  the  plains  of  Dacotah  and  Mon- 
tana, that  he  may  prey  on  the  defenseless  settlers.  The 
one  is  a  flesh  and  blood  reality,  the  other  is,  with  rare 
exceptions,  a  figment  of  the  fancy. 

And  yet  there  have  been  noble  specimens  of  untutored 
greatness  amongst  these  children  of  the  forest.  They 
have  had,  except  the  Cherokees  and  a  few  other  tribes, 
no  written  language,  and  consequently  no  literature. 
For  the  fine  arts  they  exhibit  no  aptitude.  Still,  they 


148  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

have  had  their  orators,  like  Logan,  whose  eloquence  stirs 
the  soul,  or  like  Weatherford,  who  speaks  of  the  fallen 
braves  at  Emuckfau  and  Tohopeka  as  thrillingly  as 
Pericles  of  the  dead  at  Marathon.  Nor  have  they  failed 
to  produce  warriors  of  the  highest  genius.  Red  Jacket 
could  not  plan  a  campaign  like  Marlborough,  nor  did 
Osceola  understand  the  principles  of  fortification  like 
Vauban,  and  yet  both  of  them,  with  an  undisciplined 
and  badly  equipped  soldiery,  kept  at  bay  the  tried  vet- 
erans of  our  army. 

But  the  race,  with  its  vices  and  its  virtues,  is  doomed. 
A  few  more  years  will  witness  its  extinction.  Not  many 
years  ago  that  ill-starred  genius,  the  Milford  Bard,  4r^w 
a  most  striking  picture  of  the  last  Indian  leaping  into 
the  waters  of  the  Pacific.  It  was  more  touching  even 
than  Campbell's  representation  of  the  Last  Man,  for  he 
was  full  of  hope, 

And  could  defy  the  darkening  universe 
To  quench  his  immortality, 
Or  shake  his  trust  in  God. 

But  the  last  Indian  could  only  look  regretfully  to  the 
lost  hunting-grounds  and  desolate  graves  of  his  fathers, 
and  in  the  frenzy  of  despair  plunge  into  the  weltering 
waste  of  waters.  We  should  be  glad  to  indulge  a  more 
hopeful  view  of  the  destiny  of  these  tribes.  We  know 
the  humanizing  effects  of  schools  and  colleges.  Above 
all  do  we  cherish  a  profound  conviction  of  the  elevating 
influences  of  Christianity.  But,  at  the  same  time,  we 
remember  the  paralyzing  influence  of  perhaps  five  thou- 


OUR    INDIAN    TRIBES THEIR     DESTINY.  149 

sand  years  of  unmitigated  barbarism.  This,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  deficient  brain  and  the  nomadic  tendencies 
of  the  race,  make  us  doubtful  of  any  permanent  improve- 
ment of  their  condition. 

The  Mound-builders,  who  preceded  them,  have  van- 
ished from  the  light  of  the  sun,  the  Aztecs  and  Incas 
who  established  anomalous  civilizations  in  Mexico  and 
Peru,  have  disappeared  from  the  earth.  So,  too,  we 
are  constrained  to  believe  that  the  countrymen  of  the 
gallant  Tecumseth  and  the  faithful  Mclntosh  will,  ere 
long,  be  numbered  with  the  extinct  races  of  mankind. 

We  may  as  well  accept  the  stubborn  fact  that  the 
inferior  races  must  go  to  the  wall.  This  lesson  is  taught 
us  in  the  fate  of  other  races  than  those  to  which  we 
have  just  alluded.  We  are  constantly  treading  on  the 
dust  of  dead  empires  and  the  debris  of  extinct  civiliza- 
tions However  much  it  may  shock  our  sensibilities, 
yet  the  work  of  elimination  will  go  forward  until  we 
reach  the  "  terminal  dynasty  "  which  Hugh  Miller  has 
so  eloquently  described.  Not  only  the  Indian — the 
Feugian,  the  South  Sea  Islander,  the  Eskimo,  but  the 
Negro  and  all  other  races  that  form  the  rear-guard  of 
humanity  must  finally  perish. 

It  is  true  that  the  census  returns  in  this  country  show 
a  rapid  increase  in  the  Negro  population,  especially 
during  the  last  two  decades.  Whether  these  statistics 
have  been  doctored  for  a  partisan  purpose,  and  to  what 
extent  is  yet  an  open  question.  Of  one  thing  we  are 
quite  sure,  that  the  weaker  must  in  the  long  run  give 
place  to  the  stronger.  The  marvellous  fecundity  of  the 


150  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

Negress  may  postpone — but  cannot  permanently  defeat 
this  ultimatum. 

Meanwhile  Christian  charity  should  induce  us  to  do 
what  is  proper  to  be  done  for  the  betterment  of  their 
physical  and  moral  condition,  as  we  may  have  oppor- 
tunity, and  according  to  the  measure  of  our  ability. 


TIME FAITH ENERGY. 


TIME— FAITH— ENERGY. 

Every  student  of  English  literature  will  remember  the 
beautiful  application  which  Bulwer  makes  of  these  words 
in  one  of  his  earliest  and  best  novels.  They  are  indeed 
magical  words,  and  we  would,  if  possible,  infuse  the 
spirit  of  them  into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  our  Ameri- 
can youth. 

They  constitute  the  conditions  of  permanent  success 
and  superior  excellence  in  all  the  departments  of  human 
exertion. 

One  of  these  terms — Faith — must  not  be  taken  in  a 
narrow  theological  sense,  but  in  its  broader  acceptation, 
as  that  faculty  or  tendency  of  the  mind  which  is  the 
exact  opposite  of  the  processes  of  the  logical  under- 
standing. As  thus  defined,  it  is  a  characteristic  of  all 
great  minds.  It  as  much  distinguished  Columbus  in  his 
search  for  a  new  world,  as  it  djd  Abraham  in  his  pilgrim- 
age to  Canaan.  It  characterized  Alexander  in  his  strug- 
gle after  universal  empire,  as  well  as  David  when  he 
undertook  the  conquest  of  the  neighboring  Philistines 
or  Edomites. 

So  that  to  the  list  of  those  elders  whom  Paul  com- 
memorates in  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  might  be  truth- 
fully added  those  master  spirits  of  profane  history,  who 
grasping  some  transcendental  truth  of  physics  or  morals, 
or  politics,  have  embodied  it  in  an  illustrious  action — or 


152  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

made  it  the  corner-stone  of  some  system  of  government 
or  philosophy. 

No  one,  therefore,  may  hope  to  achieve  great  :esults 
who  is  an  utter  stranger  to  this  ' '  vision  and  faculty- 
divine.  "  He  may  be  happy  and  usefjl  in  his  gen'era- 
tion,  but  without  it  he  shall  sleep  at  last  with  the  rude 
forefathers  of  his  native  hamlet. 

Nor  is  Energy  less  necessary  to  eminent  success  thart 
Faith.  This  is  the  working  capacity  which  all  right- 
minded  men  honor,  even  in  the  swarthy  laborer  who> 
hammers  iron  or  trundles  a  wheel-barrow.  It  is  an 
excellent  substitute  for  genius.  Many  a  young  man 
has  signally  failed,  not  for  lack  of  capacity,  but  because 
he  was  deficient  in  energy.  Hugh  Miller,  who  wrought 
through  the  day  in  the  stone-quarries  of  Cromarty,  and 
consumed  half  the  night  in  classical  studies,  is  an  exam- 
ple of  that  energy  which  we  commend.  Such  industry 
will  succeed  in  spite  of  every  disadvantage  of  fortune,, 
and  will  sometimes  elevate  him  that  practices  it  to  the 
foremost  rank  amongst  his  contemporaries  We  need 
this  quality  in  the  South  more  than  all  else  at  the  pres- 
ent juncture.  Our  people  have  been  impoverished  far 
beyond  their  own  present  appreciation.  But  though 
the  field  be  lost,  all  is  not  lost  We  have  our  manhood 
left  us.  We  have  brawn  and  brain  which,  if  vigorously- 
exercised  and  well-directed,  will  yet  make  this  beautiful 
land  to  bloom  like  Eden  and  blossom  as  the  garden  of 
the  Lord. 

Time  is  another  condition  of  success.  We  live  in  a 
"fast  age."  We  do  everything  in  a  hurry,  and  seem 


TIME FAITH ENERGY.  153 

to  have  utterly  forgotten  tf\z  festtna  lente  of  the  ancients. 
The  consequence  is  that  our  scholarship  is  superficial — 
our  public  works,  with  few  exceptions,  appear  designed 
for  ornament  rather  than  use,  and  the  reading  of  the  ma- 
jority is  confined  to  shilling  novels  and  peivny  pamphlets. 
One  can  scarcely  believe  that  we  are  of  the  same  lineage 
with  the  Aschams.and  Erasmuses  of  a  past  generation, 
or  that  we  are  of  the  same  race,  with  those  who  built 
the  pyramids,  or  those  later  giants  who  reared  the  vast 
cathedrals,  and  wrote  the  huge  folios  of  mediaeval 
Europe.  The  great  works  of  genius,  like  the  Iliad  of 
Homer,  and  the  Principia  of  Newton,  are  the  product 
of  patient  and  protracted  intellectual  toil.  They  require 
line  upon  line,  here  a  little  and  there  a  little.  And  so, 
too,  it  is  by  persistent  strokes  of  the  chisel  that  the 
shapeless  block  of  marble  is  fashioned  into  the  master- 
piece of  the  sculptor,  and  by  persevering  labor  that  the 
painter's  canvass  is  made  to  glow  with,  the  touching 
scene  of  The  Last  Supper  Time,  Faith,  Energy.  Let 
these  talismanic  words  be  the  motto  of  our  young  men, 
and  we  need  not  then  despair  of  the  fortunes'  of  the 
South,  nor  of  the  welfare  of  this  great  Republic,  one 
and  indivisible. 

PILGRIM'S  PROGRESS. — Addison  was  the  first  English 
critic  who  popularized  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  and 
Macaulay  is  entitled  to  the  credit  of  having  first  intro- 
duced Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress  to  the  favorable 
notice  of  the  magnates  of  the  English  realm. 

F'jr  more  than  two  hundred  years  it  had  been  the 


154  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

favorite  book  of  the  working  classes.  It  was  always 
found  side  by  side  with  the  Holy  Bible,  in  the  library 
of  the  humble  cottager,  but  it  was  rarely  seen  in  the 
mansions  of  the  wealthy. 

Since  the  publication  of  Macaulay's  essay  on  John 
Bunyan,  in  the  pages  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  there 
has  been  a  marked  change  in  the  fortunes  of  this  pro- 
duction of  the  immortal  dreamer.  It  is  now  published 
in  the  handsomest  style  of  the  book  making  art,  and 
embellished  with  sketches  by  the  best  living  artists.  It 
is,  moreover,  fashionable  to  speak  of  it  as  an  English 
classic,  and  even  to  prefer  it  to  the  latest  novel. 

This  argues  well  for  the  literary  taste  of  the  age,  for 
no  where  is  there  to  be  found  more  sound  wisdom, 
more  chaste,  yet  beautiful  imagery,  and  greater  purity 
of  style  than  in  this  unrivalled  allegory. 

It  ought  to  be  a  constant  study,  not  only  with  divines 
and  professsedly  religious  people,  but  with  all  who  are 
fond  of  choice  reading,  and  who  wish  to  acquire  a  cor- 
rect English  style. 

Next  to  our  authorized  version  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
and  the  Spectator,  we  know  of  nothing  in  the  language 
comparable  to  it  in  this  respect. 

As  a  history  of  Christian  experience,  it  will  be  fully 
appreciated  only  by  those  who  have  themselves  floun- 
dered, like  Christian,  in  the  slough  of  despond,  or  in 
their  happier  moods  have  trod  with  him  the  delectable 
mountains  Blessed  be  the  memory  of  good  John  Bun- 
yan, who  was  favored  with  this  heavenly  vision  in  the 
dungeon  of  Bedford  jail. 


A    NATIONAL    PARASITE.  1 55 


A  NATIONAL  PARASITE. 

Naturalists  have  much  to  say  of  parasitic  plants  and 
animals.  The  mistletoe  is  one  of  the  most  familiar 
instances  of  the  former  class,  and  the  hermit-crab  is  one 
of  the  most  notable  examples  of  the  latter  class.  The 
mistletoe,  instead  of  gathering  its  nourishment  from  the 
soil,  draws  its  supplies  from  the  oak  and  chestnut. 
With  equal  disinterestedness  the  hermit-crab,  instead  of 
building  its  own  houses,  utilizes  the  cast-off  shells  of 
various  mollusca.  In  both  cases  there  is,  as  scientists 
teach,  a  rapid  degeneration. 

Parasitism  is  not,  however,  confined  to  the  vegetable 
and  animal  kingdoms.  There  are  frequent  examples 
amongst  the  lower  and  higher  human  races.  Every 
unproductive  consumer,  whether  duke  or  dead*beat,  is 
a  social  parasite  Every  landlord  or  employer,  who 
grinds  the  poor,  and,  by  one  or  another  crooked  device, 
appropriates  without  just  compensation  the  blood  and 
sweat  of  the  toiling  millions,  is  none  the  less  a  parasite 
because  of  his  plethoric  money-bags. 

Aggressive  syndicates,  land  monopolies,  tax  exempt- 
ed capital,  whether  in  bonds  or  railways,  all  go  to 
augment  the  burdens  of  the  bread-winners.  They  per- 
petuate an  evil  which  menaces  the  peace  and  prosperity 
of  the  commonwealth.  They  are  in  no  small  measure 


156  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

responsible  for  the  growth  of  communism,  and  pave  the 
way  for  Chicago  bomb  throwing  and  French  revolutions. 

Moralize  as  we  may  on  the  comeliness  of  law  and 
order,  emphasize  as  we  may  choose  the  sacredness  of 
vested  rights,  these  "wise  saws"  are  but  paper  bar- 
riers, when  the  smouldering  passions  of  a  hungry  popu- 
lace break  forth  with  desolating  force  and  fury.  These 
issues  are  not  yet  imminent  in  this  country.  But  for 
this  we  are  less  indebted  to  the  sagacity  of  our  rulers 
than  to  that  broad  heritage  which  furnishes  ample  room 
for  our  constantly  swelling  population.  Our  civil  war, 
followed  by  the  emancipation  of  five  millions  of  slaves, 
the  accumulation  of  a  vast  national  debt,  the  establish- 
ment of  an  enormous  pension  list,  has  cast  a  heavy 
burden  on  the  taxpayers  of  the  country. 

The  negroes,  unfitted  morally  and  intellectually  for 
the  exercise  of  freedom,  were  distinctly  recognized  as 
"  wards  of  the  nation."  Even  while  the  sulphur  smoke 
of  battle  still  'floated  in  the  air,  this  blighting  curse  of 
parasitism  was  entailed  on  coming  generations.  The 
Freedman's  Bureau  was  inaugurated,  with  its  periodical 
disbursement  of  food  and  clothing.  In  many  instances 
it  was  a  well  bestowed  charity.  But  in  an  immense 
majority  of  cases  it  was  directly  promotive  of  idleness. 
As  practically  administered  it  was  the  offering  of  a 
premium  to  thriftless  vagabondism  that  did  quite  as 
much  to  demoralize  the  negroes;  *as  the  patriotic  carpet- 
baggers and  pious  school-marms  who  followed  in  the 
wake  of  conquering  armies.  From  that  time  forward, 
sundry  efforts  in  the  shape  of  constitutional  amend 


A    NATIONAL    PARASITE.  1 57 

i 

ments  and  civil  rights  bills,  and  at  short  intervals  mili- 
tary intervention  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  Southern 
States,  served  to  perpetuate  this  ruinous  policy.  Men 
who,  in  respect  to  other  questions,  are  of  unimpeacha- 
ble sanity,  when  they  touch  this  issue  appear  to  have 
eaten  of  ' '  that  insane  root  which  takes  the  reason  pris- 
oner." 

The  latest  aspect  of  this  craze  is  the  educational  bill 
of  Senator  Blair.  If  this  were  an  isolated  measure,  it 
might  be  treated  with  some  forbearance.  But  such  a 
conception  argues  an  exceedingly  narrow  view  of  the  drift 
of  the  scheme  it  inaugurates  and  an  utter  misapprehen- 
sion of  the  intent  of  its  principal  advocates.  Properly 
understood,  it  is  the  smallest  part  of  an  administrative 
policy,  as  well  defined  as  the  American  system  of  Mr. 
Clay.  It  means  centralization,  and,  as  a  logical 
sequence,  Caesarism.  It  leads  to  the  paternal  govern- 
ment of  Bismarck,  which  is  only  sustained  by  the  mem- 
ories of  Sadowa  and  Sedan,  the  personal  qualities  of 
the  Kaiser,  and  a  military  establishment  which  is  an 
incubus  on  German  industries  and  a  perpetual  menace 
to  neighboring  nationalities.  It  is  at  best  a  blear-eyed 
statesmanship  or  a  wilful  betrayal  of  public  liberty. 
This  is  a  strong  statement,  and  yet  we  are  ready  for  its 
vindication. 

Let  us  for  the  present  consider  the  matter  apart  from 
its  obvious  relations  to  other  issues — the  tariff — the 
reckless  squandering  of  the  public  domain,  the  wasteful 
extravagance  of  river  and  harbor  appropriations,  and 
the  pension  list,  all  of  which  are  a  convenient  pretext 


158  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

for  oppressive  taxation.  An  exorbitant  tariff  system 
has  put  one  hundred  millions  of  surplus  revenue  in  the 
Federal  treasury.  Instead  of  applying  this  money  to 
the  extinguishment  of  our  national  debt,  it  is  gravely 
proposed  to  divert  it  from  this  legitimate  channel  and 
disburse  it  to  the  States  for  educational  purposes  on 
the  basis  of  illiteracy.  On  its  very  face  it  is  a  studied 
appeal  to  the  cupidity  of  the  Southern  States. 

Senator  Beck,  of  Kentucky,  sees  in  it  the  Trojan 
horse  of  the  Iliad.  To. us  it  appears  as  a  nineteenth 
century  rehearsal  of  a  highly  dramatic  incident  of  the 
Gospel.  We  refer  to  the  time  when  the  devil,  by  some 
mysterious  agency  spirited  away  the  Son  of  God  to  the 
summit  of  an  exceeding  high  mountain,  and  showed 
him  in  an  instant  of  time  the  kingdoms  of  the  world, 
and  the  glory  of  them  ;  proffering  the  whole  as  the 
reward  for  a  single  act  of  devil  worship — only  a  pepper- 
corn by  way  of  fealty.  And  yet,  as  a  quaint  divine  has 
said  the  devil  did  not  own  a  foot  of  land. 

So  with  the  sponsors  of  this  educational  bill.  They 
offer  large  sums  on  condition  that  the  States  will  raise  a 
like  amount.  All  this  vast  treasure  we  will  give  you, 
when  in  very  truth  the  general  government  is  a  pauper 
— not  less  than  the  leperous  Lazarus  of  our  Savior's 
parable.  Not  a  dollar  in  its  treasury  that  the  people  of 
the  States  did  not  put  there,  and  the  South  more  than 
its  proportionable  share.  Its  ultimate  tendency  is  to 
confer  on  the  general  government  the  power  to  control 
the  matter  of  education  in  all  the  States  We  know 
right  well  that  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  pend- 


A    NATIONAL    PARASITE.  I  59 

ing  bill,  the  policy  is  temporary,  designed  to  meet  an 
emergency.  But  is  any  advocate  of  the  measure  so 
stupid  or  so  wilfully  blind  as  not  to  see  that  Congress, 
once  having  acquired  the  power,  will  exercise  it  with 
only  such  limitations  as  it  may  accept  ?  Given  a  sweep- 
ing Republican  victory,  and  the  next  step  will  be  for 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  prescribe  the  text  books 
and  to  withhold  the  appropriations  from  all  but  mixed 
schools.  The  sagacity  of  men  who  cannot  see  the  moral 
certainty  of  this  result  is  on  a  par  with  the  folly  of  that 
silly  bird  who  thrusts  his  head  into  the  desert  sands  and 
leaves  his  bulk  exposed  to  an  a  posteriori  argument  any- 
thing but  pleasant,  and  shamefully  humiliating  to  the 
dignity  even  of  an  ostrich. 

Where,  we  ask,  is  the  reason  or  necessity  for  submit- 
ting to  this  fresh  assault  on  local  self-government  ?  In 
what  school  of  politics  did  the  Democratic  Senators, 
who  voted  for  the  passage  of  the  bill,  learn  that  the 
States  were  incapable  of  managing  this  matter?  What 
is  more,  is  the  scheme  either  right  or  politic  ?  Is  it 
based  on  one  of  the  powers  delegated  to  the  Federal 
government?  One  Southern  Senator  answers  affirma- 
tively in  reliance  upon  the  "general  welfare"  clause,  a 
construction  that  evidently  makes  the  government  one  of 
unlimited  powers — a  construction  that  even  Timothy 
Pickering,  the  typical  Federalist,  would  have  disavowed. 
This  from  a  man  who,  in  ante-bellum  days,  was  on  the 
question  of  States  rights  "a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews;" 
who,  during  the  war,  was  such  a  pronounced  stickler 
for  State  sovereignty,  that  he  more  than  once  embar- 


I6O  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

rassed  and  hindered  the  war  policy  of  the  Confederate 
government.  Nor  was  he  more  fortunate  in  his  appeal 
to  the  practice  of  the  government  with  reference  to 
internal  improvements.  An  appeal  to  precedent  is 
allowable  in  the. forum.  Stare  decisis  is  a  wise  judicial 
maxim.  But  the  merest  pettifogger  knows  that  it  is 
out  of  place  in  the  Senate  chamber.  Ours  is  in  theory, 
and  until  these  evil  days  was  in  practice,  a  government 
of  constitutional  limitations.  Besides,  the  analogy 
which  he  proposes  between  appropriations  for  educa- 
tional purposes  and  river  and  harbor  appropriations,  is 
fanciful  and  far-fetched. 

The  Senator  referred  to  is  no  mean  disputant,  and  we 
have  rarely  seen  him  at  such  manifest  disadvantage  as 
when  Bayard,  of  Delaware,  exposed  the  absurdity  of 
this  analogy.  The  Delaware  Senator  admonished  him, 
that  as  long  ago  as  1826,  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  had  affirmed  the  constitutionality  of  the  river  and 
harbor  appropriations,  on  the  ground  that  the  Federal 
government  had  the  power  to  regulate  commerce  be- 
tween the  States.  This  decision,  he  further  remarked, 
had  been  acquiesced  in  by  all  departments  of  the  gov- 
ernment for  a  half  century.  It  was  like  a  third  form 
boy  at  Rugby  having  his  Latin  syntax  corrected  by 
Thomas  Arnold.  But  if  there  were  no  constitutional 
obstacle  to  the  bill,  its  obvious  impolicy  ought  to  insure 
its  defeat. 

We  have  elsewhere  said  some  things  which  we  take 
this  occasion  to  restate. 

The    credit   or   discredit   of  the   authorship    of   this 


A    NATIONAL    PARASITE.  l6l 

measure  is  shared  between  the  late  President  Garfield 
and  Judge  Tourgee.  The  latter  gentleman,  according 
to  his  own  confession,  had  gone  on  a  "fool's  errand" 
to  North  Carolina  just  after  the  war.  By  his  party 
associates  even  he  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  an  educa- 
tional bore — but  he  succeeded  at  last  in  winning  the  ear 
and  confidence  of  Mr.  Garfield.  In  an  interview  with 
the  President,  Tourgee  convinced  that  official  that  just 
such  a  scheme  of  National  Education  as  was  afterwards 
incorporated  in  the  Blair  Bill  was  the  apecific  and  sov- 
reign  remedy  for  the  political  and  social  disabilities  of 
the  Southern  Freedman.  That  by  this  measure  also, 
the  Republican  party  would  be  able  to  secure  a  free 
ballot  and  a  fair  count  in  Southern  elections.  By  this 
new  phase  of  reconstruction  Tourgee  likewise  argued 
that  no  less  than  seven  of  the  South  Atlantic  and  Gulf 
States  would  in  process  of  time  be  transformed  into 
negro  republics.  Mr.  Garfield,  who  was  at  least,  a 
shrewd  partisan,  readily  saw  that  this  pet  project  of 
Tourgee,  was  a  vast  stride  towards  centralization.  Aus- 
tria could  devise  no  better  plan  for  counteracting  the 
spread  of  liberal  principles  in  the  empire  than  to  place 
the  whole  matter  of  education  in  the  hands  of  the  Jesuit 
Fathers.  Nor  could  human  ingenuity  devise  a  better 
plan  for  destroying  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the 
South  than  to  give  the  control  of  the  primary  education 
of  the  masses,  white  and  black,  to  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment so  long  as  the  radical  party  was  in  power.  Of 
course  the  ostensible  pretext  of  this  unconstitutional 
interference  with  a  matter  properly  belonging  to  the 


1 62  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

jurisdiction  of  the  State  Governments  was  humanitarian 
rather  than  political.  It  was,  they  alleged,  to  forestall 
a  conflict  of  races  when  every  dollar  they  have  expended 
and  every  effort  they  have  made  whether  on  the  line  of 
Missionary  or  Educational  work  has  widened  the  breach, 
and  rendered  true  reconcilement  more  difficult  and 
impracticable.  If  they  really  desire  harmony  between 
the  races  and  the  enlargement  of  the  South's  prosperity, 
let  them  mind  their  home  affairs.  If  they  must  needs  go 
abroad  they  may  find  ample  employment  on  "  the  dark 
continent  "  where  the  debased  inhabitants  eat  serpents 
and  lizzards,  and  worship  a  Mumbo  Jumbo  idol.  And 
yet  one  of  these  Northern  churches  appropriates  barely 
three  thousand  dollars  of  missionary  money  to  Africa, 
and  at  the  same  time  votes  sixty  thousand  dollars  to  the 
South,  where  their  presence  is  an  obvious  impertinence. 
Is  it  uncharitable  to  ask  if  they  are  in  search  of  human 
souls  or  Republican  votes? 

Unless  we  shut  our  eyes  to  the  facts  of  History,  we 
shall  be  constrained  to  answer  this  question  affirmatively. 
That  church  before  and  after  the  civil  war  has  been 
preaching  a  Gospel  of  hate,  except  when  for  selfish 
ends  it  was  seeking  a  unification  of  the  Northern  and 
Southern  branches  of  Methodism. 

Such  a  line  of  policy  as  the  disbursement  proposed  is 
really  without  precedent  in  the  history  of  the  govern- 
ment. Many  years  ago  there  was  a  surplus  revenue 
accruing  from  the  sale  of  the  public  lands.  It  was  pro- 
posed to  distribute  this  fund,  for  which  the  government 
had  no  present  need,  not  as  a  free  gratuity,  but  as  an 


A    NATIONAL    PARASITE.  163 

indefinite  loan.  Some  of  our  purest  and  wisest  states- 
men resisted  the  measure,  as  both  unconstitutional  and 
inexpedient.  South  Carolina  refused  outright  to  receive 
her  quota.  She  was  unwilling  to  be  subsidized,  or,  what 
was  scarcely  less  incompatible  with  her  dignity,  to 
become  a  pensioner  of  the  Federal  treasury.  It  is  a 
burning  shame  that  such  manly  independence  is  no 
longer  dreamed  of  in  our  political  philosophy. 

But  its  impolicy  is  more  striking  for  another  vital 
consideration.  While  we  distinctly  recognize  the  evils 
of  illiteracy  among  the  negroes,  we  are  equally  satisfied 
that  universal  education  is  no  adequate  remedy  for  uni- 
versal suffrage.  "There  is  no  political  alchemy,"  as 
Huxley. wisely  observed,  "by  which  you  can  extract 
golden  conduct  from  leaden  instincts."  The  negro's 
intellectual  and  moral  advancement  is  limited  by  the 
intellectual  and  moral  capabilities  of  his  race.  The  law 
of  conformity  to  type  will  bring  him  to  his  proper  level, 
as  certainly  as  the  law  of  gravitation  brings  a  stone  to 
the  earth. 

Negro  suffrage,  not  less  a  crime  than  a  blunder,  can 
only  be  corrected  by  such  a  modification  of  the  law  as 
the  public  welfare  shall  demand.  Meanwhile,  let  us  bear 
the  ills  we  have  rather  than  fly  to  others  we  know  not  of. 
What  may  be  done  for  the  negro's  education  will  be 
best  done  by  the  State  governments,  without  Federal 
interference. 

Let  him  be  taught  that  his  highest  well-being  is  to  be 
secured  by  self-development,  not  by  parasitism.  Let 
him  learn  to  discriminate  between  a  becoming  self-reli- 


164  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

ance  and  an  offensive  self-assertion.  Let  him  be  admon- 
ished that  his  struggle  for  equality,  much  more  for 
supremacy,  is  an  inevitable  failure.  That  the  social  and 
political  distinctions  which  he  resents  as  disparagements, 
and  even  grievances,  are  based  on  ethnical  differences 
that  no  human  enactments  can  obliterate. 

The  wretched  class  legislation  of  the  past  twenty 
years,  inspired  by  malice  and  intended  to  humiliate  the 
South,  has  been  a  positive  injury  to  the  negro  as  well 
as  a  flagrant  wrong  to  the  white  race.  Senator  Blair's 
bill  is  of  a  piece,  so  far  as  its  manifest  tendencies  are 
concerned,  with  the  cotton  tax,  the  kuklux  laws,  the 
confiscation  and  disfranchisement  laws  of  a  Radical 
majority.  The  spirit  that  prompted  the  dismember- 
ment of  the  mother  of  States  still  seeks  to  blot  out  State 
lines  and  destroy  State  sovereignty  by  a  gradual  absorp- 
tion of  the  rights  "  reserved  to  the  States  respectively, 
or  to  the  people." 

Twenty  years  more  of  similar  misrule  wiU  not  only 
revolutionize  the  government,  but  it  will  utter  destroy 
whatever  of  real  manhood  yet  remains  in  the  negro 
race. 

The  History  of  Liberia  sheds  abundant  light  on  this 
vexed  question.  Colonized  under  the  auspices  of  the 
American  Government  with  the  best  class  of  Africo- 
Americans,  it  has  been  a  miserable  abortion.  For  a 
time  there  was  some  faint  prospect  of  success,  but  more 
recently  it  has  gone  from  bad  to  worse  until  socially, 
commercially  and  politically,  it  is  an  eye-sore  to  the 
civilized  nations,  and  is  treated  with  deserved  contempt 


A    NATIONAL    PARASITE.  165 

even  by  the  barbarous  natives.  Everywhere  indeed, 
the  attempt  to  found  Negro  States  has  signally  failed. 
If  Garfield's  project  for  Africanizing  the  South  Atlantic 
and  Gulf  States  through  the  agency  of  a  Blair  Bill,  or 
a  similar  congressional  enactment  could  be  consummated 
the  fruits  would  be  the  same  as  when  Negro  Supremacy 
was  foisted  by  Federal  bayonets  on  South  Carolina.  Sena- 
tor Hampton  in  his  Forum  article  has  shown  what  a 
Political  Bedlam  was  developed  in  a  very  few  years  by 
that  iniquitous  policy.  From  the  Governor  to  the 
humblest  tax-gatherer  there  was  fraud  and  outright 
roguery  to  a  degree  that  exhausted  the  State  Treasury 
and  threatened  the  downtrodden  white  population  with 
universal  bankruptcy.  And  yet  there  is  a  class  of 
Republican  Statesmen  North,  and  their  pliant  hench- 
men South,  who  are  eager  to  repeat  this  experiment  on 
a  much  larger  scale.  They  may  achieve  a  temporary 
success,  but  their  final  discomfiture  is  inevitable. 

By  a  gracious  provision  of  nature  "moral  monsters 
cannot  propagate,"  and  a  like  seminal  impotency  is  the 
characteristic  of  every  public  policy  bottomed  on  such 
flagrant  injustice  as  distinguishes  the  measures  and  mas- 
ter spirits  of  the  present  dominant  party. 

Let  it  be  continued,  and  it  is  but  a  question  of  time 
when,  instead  of  an  independent  body  of  American  citi- 
zens, the  whole  race,  with  rare  exceptions,  will  become 
"a  proletarian  rabble  kept  at  the  public  expense.'' 


1 66  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 


MODERN  INFIDELITY— ITS  LATEST  PHASE, 


Shelley,  in  his  notes  to  Queen  Mab,  characterizes  our 
Saviour  as  an  ambitious  man,  who  aspired  to  the  throne 
of  David. 

To  compass  this  cherished  object,  he  falsely  claimed 
to  be  the  Messiah  of  the  Jewish  prophecies.  His  life, 
therefore,  was,  according  to  this  theory,  a  piece  of  inge- 
nious acting,  inspired  by  fraud,  and  controlled  by  the 
basest  selfishness. 

We  instinctively  shudder  at  the  bold  blasphemy  of 
such  a  declaration,  and  yet  even  this  is  more  tolerable 
than  the  patronizing  air  of  Ernest  Renan  and  kindred 
writers.  These  affect  a  reverence  for  Christ,  while,  like 
Iscariot  of  old,  they  betray  him  with  a  kiss.  They  salute 
him  with  "Art  thou  well,  my  brother?"  whilst  they 
smite  him  in  the  most  vital  part  with  the  secret  blade 
of  Joab. 

The  infidelity  of  the  school  of  Voltaire  and  Paine  has 
fallen  into  general  disrepute,  as  much  on  account  of  its 
shameless  indecency  as  because  of  its  manifest  absurdity. 
The  world  is  not  yet  so  degenerate  that  it  will  listen 
patiently  to  the  teachings  of  an  author  who  alleges  that 
the  virgin  mother  was  recreant  to  her  plighted  troth, 
and  that  the  Holy  Child  was  the  offspring  of  an  illicit 
amour.  Nor  will  it  respect  the  sayings  of  any  man  or 
party  that  maintains,  contrary  to  all  the  evidence,  that 


MODERN    INFIDELITY ITS    LATEST    PHASE.  1 67 

Mary  Magdalene  and  Mary,  the  wife  of  Cleopas — wit- 
nesses of  the  resurrection — were  women  of  doubtful 
veracity  and  more  than  doubtful  virtue.  Such  reckless 
defamation  defeats  its  own  purpose,  and  is  sure  to  recoil 
with  terrible  force  against  the  cause  it  is  designed  to 
uphold.  This  plan  of  attack  has  been,  therefore,  aban- 
doned by  the  more  wary  opponents  of  Christianity.  It 
is  now  the  fashion  for  avowed  infidels  to  be  convulsed 
with  raptures  at  the  epic  grandeur  of  Isaiah  and  Habak- 
kuk,  and  to  be  melted  by  the  elegiac  tenderness  of 
Jeremiah.  Nor  do  they  hesitate  to  rank  the  inimitable 
Parables  and  Sermons  of  Christ  with  the  grandest  utter- 
ances of  Plato  and  Aristotle. 

Conspicuous,  as  we  have  already  intimated,  amongst 
this  class,  is  Renan,  whose  work,  entitled  "The  Apos- 
tles," has  suggested  these  reflections.  ' '  The  Apostles, " 
as  respects  the  plan  of  it,  bears  a  close  analogy  to 
Neander's  '  'Planting  of  Christianity. "  It  takes  for  its  basis 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  as  supplemented  and  explained 
by  the  Pauline  Epistles.  While  it  contains  many  grave, 
historical  inaccuracies,  it  may  be  safely  admitted  that 
portions  of  the  Sacred  Record  are  discussed  with  fair- 
ness and  ability.  This  especially  applies  to  those  pages 
devoted  to  the  missionary  labors  of  Paul  and  Barnabas. 
It  sheds  considerable  light,  also,  on  the  distracting  con- 
troversy between  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  converts, 
which,  in  particular  localities,  brought  the  early  Church 
to  the  verge  of  utter  overthrow  In  this  connexion,  he 
gives  a  full  account  of  the  establishment  of  the  Church 
of  Antioch,  the  mother  Church  of  the  Gentiles.  In 


1 68  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

regard  to  this  event,  which  constitutes  an  era  in  the 
development  and  expansion  of  the  Church,  he  makes 
the  following  observations : 

"  The  Church  of  Antioch  owed  its  foundation  to  some 
original  believers  from  Cyprus  and  Cyrene,  who  had 
already  been  zealous  in  preaching.  Up  to  this  time 
they  had  only  addressed  themselves  to  the  Jews.  But 
in  the  city  where  pure  Jews — Jews  who  were  proselytes, 
'people  fearing  God' — or  half-Jews,  half-pagans,  and  pure 
pagans  lived  together,  confined  preachings,  restricted  to 
a  group  of  houses,  became  impossible.  That  feeling  of 
religious  aristocracy  on  which  the  Jews  of  Jerusalem  so 
much  prided  themselves,  had  no  existence  in  these  large 
cities,  where  civilization  was  altogether  of  the  profane  sort, 
where  the  atmosphere  was  more  expanded,  and  where 
prejudices  were  less  firmly  rooted.  The  Cypriot  and 
Cyrenian  missionaries  were  then  constrained  to  depart 
from  their  rule.  They  preached  to  the  Jews  and  to  the 
Greeks  indifferently. 

"  The  reciprocal  dispositions  of  the  Jewish  and  of  the 
pagan  population  appeared  at  this  time  to  have  been  very 
unsatisfactory.  But  circumstances  of  another  kind  proba- 
bly sub-served  the  new  ideas.  The  earthquake,  which 
had  done  serious  damage  to  the  city  on  23d  March,  of 
the  year  37,  still  occupied  their  minds.  The  whole  city 
was  talking  about  an  impostor  named  Debborius,  who 
pretended  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  such  accidents 
by  ridiculous  talismans.  This  sufficed  to  direct  preoc- 
cupied minds  towards  supernatural  matters.  However 
that  may  have  been,  great  was  the  success  of  the  Christ 


MODERN    INFIDELITY ITS    LATEST    PHASE.  169 

ian  preaching.  A  young,  innovating,  and  ardent  Church, 
full  of  the  future,  because  it  was  composed  of  the  most 
diverse  elements,  was  quickly  founded.  All  the  gifts  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  were  there  poured  out,  and  it  was  then 
easy  to  perceive  that  this  new  Church,  emancipated  from 
the  strict  Mosaism  which  traced  an  irrefragable  circle 
around  Jerusalem,  would  become  the  second  cradle  of 
Christianity.  Assuredly,  Jerusalem  will  remain  forever 
the  capital  of  the  Christian  world  nevertheless,  the  point 
of  departure  of  the  church  of  the  Gentiles,  the  primal 
focus  of  Christian  missions,  was,  in  truth,  Antioch.  It 
is  there,  for  the  first  time,  that  a  Christian  church  was 
established,  divorced  from  the  bonds  of  Judaism  ;  it  is 
there  that  the  great  propaganda  of  the  Apostolic  age 
was  established ;  it  was  there  that  St.  Paul  assumed  a 
definite  character.  Antioch  marks  the  second  halting- 
place  of  the  progress  of  Christianity,  and,  in  respect  of 
Christian  nobility,  neither  Rome,  nor  Alexandria,  nor 
Constantinople  can  be  at  all  compared  with  it." 

It  is,  however,  evidently  the  purpose  of  Renan  to 
eliminate  every  element  of  the  supernatural  from  the 
history  of  the  primitive  Church.  He  labors  assiduously 
to  accomplish  this  end,  and  spares  no  quibble,  and  no 
device  that  may  help  the  undertaking.  With  this  intent 
he  has  investigated  at  much  length  the  Scriptural  narra- 
tive of  the  conversion  of  St  Paul.  He  concedes  the 
vast  significance  of  that  remarkable  event,  and  recog- 
nizes its  wonderful  influence  on  the  fortunes  of  the  infant 
Christianity.  Hence,  he  is  at  great  pains  to  strip  it  of 
all  semblance  of  the  miraculous,  and  to  drag  it  down  to 


I/O  LECTURES     AND     ESSAYS. 

the  level  of  a  natural,  although  an  extraordinary,  occur- 
rence. He  ventures  to  revive,  at  this  late  date,  the 
preposterous  theory  of  German  Rationalism,  which 
Strauss  himself  discarded  as  less  tenable  than  the 
received  opinion  of  Christendom.  We  shall  not  attempt 
to  follow  Renan  through  the  wearisome  details  of  what 
he  styles  his  argument  on  this  question.  The  bare  state- 
ment of  that  argument  is  the  readiest  mode  of  refuting 
it.  Can  it  be  credited,  may  we  not  ask,  that  the  facts 
recorded  by  Luke  of  that  marvellous  journey  to  Damas- 
cus— which  facts  Paul  affirmed  before  the  great  council 
of  his  nation  at  Jerusalem — facts  which  he  reiterated 
before  Agrippa  in  the  Judgment  Hall  at  Csesarea — which 
he  doubtless  insisted  on  in  his  first  and  second  answers 
before  Caesar — facts,  too,  that  he  avouched  by  his  mar- 
tyrdom— that  these  facts,  in  part  and  whole,  were  a 
tissue  of  lies,  and  were  either  the  concoction  of  a  delib- 
erate fraud,  or  the  hallucination  of  downright  madness? 

Does  it  comport,  we  again  inquire,  with  reason  itself 
to  believe  that  a  thunder-storm  gathering  suddenly  above 
the  declivities  of  Mount  Hermon  wrought  a  conversion 
that  has  literally  changed  the  currents  of  the  world's 
history  ?  Aye,  more,  is  it  true,  as  Renan  inculcates, 
that  Paul  was  stunned  and  blinded  by  a  lightning  stroke, 
and  that  his  vision  of  the  crucified  Nazarene  was  simply 
the  result  of  opthalmic  inflammation,  and  that  the  voice 
of  rebuke,  "Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  me!" 
was  the  mere  product  of  his  confused  consciousness? 

We  have  selected  this  instance  of  the  conversion  of 
St.    Paul   as  a   fair   example   of  the   style  of  reasoning 


MODERN    INFIDELITY ITS    LATEST    PHASE.  I/ I 

which  pervades  this  book  from  the  High  Priest  of  mod- 
ern infidelity.  It  will  serve  very  well  to  show  what 
is  the  logic  of  skepticism,  and  to  what  desperate  shifts 
and  expedients  even  great  minds  are  driven  when  they 
break  away  from  the  moorings  of  Christian  theology. 
If  these,  and  such  as  these,  are  the  most  formidable 
objections  to  the  Bible,  then,  indeed,  may  its  friends 
laugh  to  scorn  the  efforts  of  its  mightiest  assailants. 

It  is,  however,  a  noteworthy  fact  that  infidelity  is  as 
much  of  a  changling  as  Proteus,  the  fabulous  sea-god  of 
classic  mythology.  In  one  century  it  dogmatizes  with 
Chubb  and  Bolingbroke,  and  in  another  it  syllogizes 
with  Hume.  In  one  generation  it  sneers  with  Voltaire 
and  raves  with  Tom  Paine,  whilst  in  the  next  it  praises 
with  Strauss,  and  almost  worships  with  Renan. 

There  is,  indeed,  amongst  these  enemies  of  the  Faith 
— a  most  striking  confusion  of  tongues — so  much  so,  in 
sooth,  that  it  is  easy  to  set  one  in  battle  array  against 
another.  Like  equal  quantities  on  opposite  sides  of  an 
Algebraic  equation,  they  neutralize  each  other,  and  the 
sum  total  is  zero.  Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  Renan 
and  others  of  his  class  do  not  have  a  system  of  religious 
belief.  He  calls  this  system  the  absolute  religion  of  which 
he  asserts  Mormonism,  Buddhism  and  Christism  to  be 
convenient  modifications.  This  is  certainly  high-sounding 
phraseology,  but  when  carefully  analyzed  it  is  discovered 
to  be  a  most  pitiful  play  on  words.  Their  boasted 
absolutism  is  a  veritable  sham.  It  has  not  the  vitality 
of  a  galvanized  corpse,  and  is,  in  our  judgment  a  form 
of  infidelity  less  plausible  than  atheism,  or  even  nihilism. 


LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

Before  dismissing  this  subject,  we  feel  it  is  but  due  to 
Renan  to  cite  the  subjoined  passage  from  his  work : 

"Are  we  then  to  conclude  that  religion  is  destined 
gradually  to  die  away  like  the  popular  fallacies  concern- 
ing magic,  sorcery,  and  ghosts  ?  By  no  means.  Religion 
is  not  a  popular  fallacy ;  it  is  a  great  intuitive  truth,  felt 
and  expressed  by  the  people.  All  the  symbols  which 
serve  to  give  shape  to  the  religious  sentiment  are  imper- 
fect, and  their  fate  is,  to  be  one  after  another  rejected. 
But  nothing  is  more  remote  from  the  truth  than  the 
dream  of  those  who  seek  to  imagine  a  perfect  humanity 
without  religion.  The  contrary  idea  is  the  truth.  The 
Chinese,  a  very  inferior  branch  of  humanity,  have  hardly 
any  religious  sentiment.  But  if  we  suppose  a  planet 
inhabited  by  a  race  whose  intellectual,  moral  and  physi- 
cal force  were  the  double  of  our  own,  that  race  would 
be  at  least  twice  as  religious  as  we.  I  say  '  at  least, '  for 
it  is  likely  that  the  religious  sentiment  would  increase 
more  rapidly  than  the  intellectual  capacity,  and  not  in 
merely  direct  proportion.  Let  us  suppose  a  humanity 
ten  times  as  powerful  as  we  are ;  it  would  be  infinitely 
more  religious.  It  is  even  probable  that  at  this  degree 
of  sublime  elevation,  being  freed  from  material  cares 
and  egotism,  endowed  with  perfect  judgment  and  appre- 
ciation, and  perceiving  clearly  the  baseness  and  nothing- 
ness of  all  that  is  not  true,  good  or  beautiful,  man  would 
be  wholly  a  religious  being,  and  would  spend  his  days 
in  ceaseless  adoration,  passing  from  ecstasy  to  ecstasy 
of  religious  rapture,  and  living  and  dying  in  the  loftiest 
delight  of  the  soul.  Egotism  is  the  measure  of  inferi- 


MODERN    INFIDELITY ITS    LATEST    PHASE.  1/3 

ority,  and  decreases  as  we  recede  from  the  animal  nature. 
A  perfect  being  would  no  longer  be  selfish,  but  purely 
religious.  The  progress  of  humanity,  then,  cannot 
destroy  or  weaken  religion,  but  will  develop  and 
increase  it." 

Such  a  testimony  from  such  a  quarter  is  not  to  be 
despised  or  undervalued.  It  shows  there  are  generous 
longings  and  genial  sensibilities  underlying  the  cold  and 
repulsive  surface  of  Kenan's  moral  and  intellectual 
character.  It  ought  to  teach  us,  too,  '  'Charity  for  all, " 
for  are  not  all,  the  humblest  and  the  weakest,  the  children 
of  one  Great  Father,  "  who  knoweth  our  frame,  and  who 
remembereth  that  we  are  dust?" 


1/4  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 


ENGLISH  LIBERALISM, 


As  late  as  1753,  a  bill  was  pending  in  the  British  Par- 
liament to  authorize  the  naturalization  of  the  Jews.  This 
measure  of  simple  justice  was  furiously  assailed  in  the 
rural  districts,  and  even  the  city  of  London  sent  up  a 
very  large  memorial  condemning  the  movement  as  dis- 
honoring to  the  church  and  damaging  to  the  commerce 
of  the  country. 

Little  more  than  a  hundred  years  thereafter  Benjamin 
D' Israeli,  the  accomplished  scholar  and  statesman  was 
elevated  to  the  Premiership  over  the  heads  of  men  whose 
ancestors  came  in  with  the  Conqueror.  Those  who 
are  familiar  with  the  story  of  Isaac,  of  York,  as  related 
by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  will  see  in  this  single  event  that 
the  world  moves,  and  that  in  the  direction  of  universal 
enfranchisement.  Henceforth  Jewish  descent  has  been 
no  bar  in  England  to  the  highest  civic  promotion. 

It  is  true,  as  Emerson  says  in  his  "  English  Traits  " 
that  the  "  Middle  Ages  still  lurk  in  the  streets  of  Lon- 
don. The  Knights  of  the  Bath  yet  swear  to  defend  injured 
ladies;  the  Gold-stick-in-waiting  survives."  But  there 
are  many  things  of  later  development  and  growth,  and 
amongst  them  what  we  choose  to  term  English  Liberal- 
ism. The  germ  of  this  vast  popular  movement  is  found 
in  the  Bill  of  Rights  of  1688. 


ENGLISH    LIBERALISM.  175 

There  were  occasional  displays  of  it  under  the  Tudors 
and  Stuarts,  but  it  was  not  until  the  accession  of  Wil- 
liam of  Orange  that  it  became  formidable  by  reason  of 
the  numerical  strength  of  its  adherents.  The  American 
Revolution  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to  the  movement,  and 
the  French  Revolution  of  1789,  by  bringing  the  hitherto 
despised  and  down-trodden  peoples  of  Europe  face  to 
face  with  their  titled  oppressors,  made  it  forever  impos- 
sible to  govern  a  nation  in  the  interests  of  a  class,  and 
that,  perhaps,  the  most  weak  and  worthless  class  in  the 
community. 

Since  that  period,  the  statesmanship  of  EngLnd  has 
applied  itself  to  the  work  of  reforming  the  abuses  of  the 
past,  and  of  shaping  the  policy  of  the  government  so 
as  to  subserve,  in  the  language  of  Bentham  the  "greatest 
good  of  the  greatest  number." 

One  of  the  earliest  of  these  measures  of  progress  was 
the  Catholic  -Emancipation  Act. 

The  policy  of  England  had  for  centuries  been  intensely 
prescriptive  towards  these  hated  religionists.  Whilst 
downright  persecution  with  fagot  and  sword  was  not 
resorted  to  for  many  years,  yet,  by  means  of  the  Test 
Act  and  kindred  abominations,  the  sincere  Catholic  was 
subjected  to  penalties  and  disabilities  that  were  alike 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity  and  to  a  sound 
public  policy. 

The  contest,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  exceedingly 
bitter.  Anti-popery  riots  were  fomented  in  several  of 
the  cities,  and  in  a  few  localities  a  bigoted  clergy  houn- 
ded on  the  rabble  in  their  vindictive  courses.  Right 


1/6  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

and  reason  in  the  end  prevailed,  and  this  great  measure 
of  religious  toleration  was  adopted. 

The  next  onset  of  the  Liberal  party  was  against  the 
representative  system  which  had  so  long  obtained. 
Under  this  system.,  which  was  fraudulent  in  the  extreme, 
the  rotten  boroughs  returned  a  large  minority  to  Parlia- 
ment. Old  Sarum  and  its  congeners  were  represented, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  some  of  the  most  populous 
commercial  and  manufacturing  cities  were  excluded 
from  the  halls  of  legislation.  Less  than  two  hundred 
electors  returned  over  three  hundred  members  to  Par- 
liament. The  Reform  Bill  of  1832  struck  at  the  root 
of  this  evil.  It  provided  for  a  more  equitable  appor- 
tionment of  representatives  than  had  ever  previously 
existed.  As  might  be  supposed,  the  bill  was  stoutly 
opposed  by  all  who  were  interested  in  perpetuating  the 
abuses  sought  to  be  remedied  by  its  adoption.  It  was 
asserted  with  some  show  of  reason  that  the  extension 
of  the  Elective  Franchise  was  a  dangerous  experiment. 
Some  of  the  more  violent  of  its  opponents  predicted 
that  this  tampering  with  the  basis  of  representation  was 
a  prelude  to  anarchy  and  the  forerunner  of  national  dis- 
grace and  disaster. 

These  political  Cassandras  were  not  credited.  The  bill 
was  passed  triumphantly  and  thus  a  precedent  was  estab- 
lished for  still  greater  modifications  as  circumstances 
might  warrant. 

But  a  few  years  elapsed  until  liberalism  achieved 
another  splendid  victory  in  the  unconditional  repeal  of 
the  Corn  Laws. 


177 

These  laws  were  professedly  enacted  for  the  protection 
of  the  agricultural  interests  of  the  kingdom.  Upon  this 
rspecious  pretext  the  price  of  breadstuffs  was  enhanced 
beyond  measure.  At  the  same  instant  that  famine,  like 
a,  fleshless  fiend,  stalked  through  the  lanes  of  London 
and  Liverpool,  and  along  the  byways  of  Yorkshire 
.and  Lancashire,  thousands  of  bushels  of  wheat  were  rot- 
ting in  the  cribs  of  Illinois  and  Ohio  for  want  of  a  market. 

Against  this  political  abomination,  orators  declaimed 
and  poets  sang.  Barry  Cornwall,  by  his  rhymes,  did 
-as  much  to  enlighten  the  public  mind  as  Sir  Robert  Peel 
by  his  unanswerable  logic.  "Long  time  in  even  scale 
the  battle  hung,"  but  at  length  truth  won  the  mastery, 
-and  the  industrial  classes  of  England  were  delivered  from 
-a  most  grievous  burden.  This  result  demonstrated  the 
fact  that  the  old  landholding  class  was  no  longer  invinci- 
ble— that  the  manufacturing  class  was  hereafter  to  be 
respected  and  consulted  in  the  administration  of  national 
affairs. 

Another  exhibition  of  the  strength  of  liberalism 
was  in  the  defeat  of  the  Tory  ministry  on  the  Irish 
-Church  Establishment  resolutions  of  Mr.  Gladstone. 

We  have  already  referred  to  this,  and  we  must  be 
permitted  to  say  now  that  we  regard  it  as  the  most 
important  of  all  the  victories  as  yet  secured  by  the  pro- 
gressive party. 

Ever  since  the  permanent  conquest  of  Ireland,  it  has 
suffered  all  the  evils  of  misgovernment.  The  landhold- 
ing system,  connected  as  it  is  with  absenteeism,  and  this 
last  with  the  heartless  rapacity  of  Middlemen,  who  grind 


178  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

the  poor  tenantry  to  powder,  is  the  very  worst  that  can 
be  imagined.  Now,  superadd  to  this  the  odious  Tithe 
exactions  for  the  support  of  a  clergy  that  have  no  sym- 
pathy with  their  Catholic  parishioners,  and  you  have  at 
once  the  cause  and  the  justification  of  all  those  efforts  at 
revolution  from  the  united  Irishmen  of  '98  to  the  Fenians 
of  '68. 

The  naked  question  presented  by  Mr.  Gladstone's 
resolutions  was,  whether  this  Irish  Church  Establish- 
ment should  still  be  fastened  on  the  Catholic  population 
of  Ireland  for  the  emolument  of  a  hungry  swarm  of 
ecclesiastics  ? 

To  the  immortal  honor  of  an  English  and  a  Protestant 
House  of  Commons,  they  thundered  "No"  with  an 
emphasis  that  shook  the  walls  of  old  Westminster. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  this  vote  portends 
no  good  to  the  English  Establishment  itself.  That 
immense  corporation  may  find  it  needful  to  cease  its 
discussion  of  ritualism,  and  to  forget  the  transcendantal 
follies  of  the  Bishop  of  Natal,  while  all  parties  within 
the  pale  of  the  Establishment  combine  to  resist  the 
coming  onslaught  of  the  dissenting  and  non-conformist 
religious  bodies. 

This  struggle  is  inevitable,  and  without  pausing  to 
consider  the  merits  of  the  controversy,  we  venture  the 
prediction  that  the  English  will  share  the  fate  of  the 
Irish  Establishment.  It  may  even  yet  come  to  pass 
that  a  Baptist  or  Presbyterian  clergyman  shall  officiate 
as  a  Royal  Chaplain,  and  that  some  future  sovereign 


ENGLISH    LIBERALISM.  179 

may  worship  without  a  prayer-book,  and  at  other  altars 
than  those  of  the  present  Established  Church. 

Besides  these  greater  constitutional  changes  there 
have  been  very  many  minor  changes  in  the  laws  of  the 
realm  which  clearly  indicate  the  prevailing  drift  towards 
Democratic  institutions.  The  game  laws  which  bore  so 
oppressively  on  the  common  people  from  the  era  of  the 
Plautagenets  to  the  day  when  Shakespeare  was  arraigned 
for  deer-stalking,  and  even  until  recent  times,  have  been 
amended  in  the  interests  of  humanity.  The  Penal  Code 
has  been  so  softened  in  the  stringency  and  severity  of 
its  provisions  that  it  no  longer  deserves  to  be  charac- 
terized as  a  Code  better  suited  to  "a  community  of 
Anthropophagi  "  than  to  a  Christian  commonwealth. 
The  horrors  of  the  old  Fleet  prison,  where  men  were 
once  buried  for  life,  because  of  business  reverses,  are 
virtually  unknown.  Nor  has  there  been  for  quite  a 
number  of  years  any  just  ground  for  complaint  because 
of  onerous  taxation  of  a  civil  or  ecclesiastical  sort.  One 
by  one  the  progress  of  English  Liberalism  has  abolished 
those  laws  which  originated  in  an  age  when  Kings  were 
regarded  as  delegates  from  Heaven  and  parliaments 
were  considered  omnipotent. 

But  the  greatest  issue  of  English  politics  since  Magna 
Charta  is  the  question  of  Home  Rule  as  respects  Ire- 
land. It  is  not  strictly  a  new  question,  but  as  formu- 
lated by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  his  Home  and  Colonial  policy 
it  has  assumed  grander  proportions  than  at  any  former 
period  of  British  history. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  John  Bright,  whose  recent  death 


l8O  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

has  been  the  subject  of  much  newspaper  comment,  was 
intensely  hostile  to  the  autonomy  of  Ireland.  Not 
more  strange,  however,  than  his  stern  opposition  to  the 
Southern  cause  during  our  late  civil  war.  If  the  South 
had  been  contending  mainly  for  domestic  slavery  his 
Quakerism  might  have  justified  his  course.  But  for  the 
Tribune  of  the  English  working  classes  to  array  himself 
against  the  principle  of  local  self  government  was  a 
piece  of  the  same  glaring  inconsistency  as  his  opposition 
to  the  Irish  policy  of  the  Gladstone  ministry. 

Indeed  Mr.  Bright's  political  conduct  during  the  lat- 
ter years  of  his  life  was  a  sore  disappointment  to  his 
earlier  friends  and  admirers.  Beyond  any  great  states- 
man of  modern  times  he  may  be  said  to  have  survived 
his  usefulness.  We  say  this  in  full  view  of  the  fact  that 
he  was  but  the  other  day  gracefully  eulogized  by  the 
leaders  of  both  the  great  political  parties  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  He  had,  indeed,  nobly  sustained  the 
liberal  movement  in  the  darkest  period  of  its  history, 
but  his  defection,  when  Gladstone  was  struggling  to 
establish  Home  Rule  in  Ireland,  a  boon  already  granted 
to  Canada,  and  substantially  to  Australia,  was  a  most 
appalling  weakness  in  a  great  party  leader. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  with  the  death  of  Gladstone 
there  will  be  a  temporary  reaction  in  favor  of  the  New 
Toryism.  But  this  fluctuation  will  be  transient.  The 
Liberal  movement  is  likely  to  go  forward  until  the 
House  of  Lords  as  at  present  constituted  is  abolished, 
and  such  other  constitutional  changes  effected  as  will 
scarcely  leave  a  vestige  of  the  English  Monarchy. 


ENGLISH    LIBERALISM.  l8l 

Let  it  not  be  inferred  that  we  endorse  fully  either  the 
principles  or  the  policy  of  the  Liberal  party.  We 
honestly  believe  that  it  has  done  a  vast  deal  of  good  in 
the  past,  but  we  confess" that  we  have  grave  apprehen- 
sions in  regard  to  its  future  course.  If  it  shall  become  a 
mob  of  reckless  agitators,  seeking  to  unsettle  the  ground- 
work of  both  Church  and  State,  we  may  then  look  for 
political  convulsions  to  be  speedily  followed  by  anarchy 
or  despotism. 

There  is  danger  of  this  result,  and  some  of  the  more 
far-sighted  and  conscientious  of  the  leaders  of  the  party 
are  beginning  to  realize  it.  If  these  can  succeed  in 
arresting  this  tendency  to  excess  before  it  acquires  an 
uncontrollable  momentum,  then  will  the  cause  of  con- 
stitutional liberty  be  safe. 

Let  us  hope  that  the  just  equilibrium  of  law  and 
liberty  may  be  maintained  ;  that  the  one  may  not  degene- 
rate into  license,  nor  the  other  become  the  synonymn 
of  oppression.  They  are  by  no  means  incompatible, 
as  the  history  of  our  own  Republic  for  the  first  half 
century  of  its  existence  abundantly  testifies.  And  if 
party  spirit  and  sectional  animosity  have  in  these  last  sad 
years  divorced  these  equally  divine  principles  of  liberty 
and  law,  let  the  true-hearted  men  of  all  sections  unite 
in  restoring  the  Government  to  its  rightful  position. 

Such  an  example  of  wise  conservatism  in  America 
cannot  fail  to  impress  and  influence  the  politics  of  Eng- 
land. The  silly  projects  of  mere  disorganizers  will  be 
visited  with  public  condemnation.  And  then,  by  a  law 
of  reaction,  as  beneficent  as  it  is  powerful,  we  too,  shall 


1 82        .  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

be  saved  from  the  revolutionary  madness  which  threat- 
ens the  destruction  of  whatsoever  is  most  sacred  in  the 
memories  of  the  past,  and  most  inspiring  in  the  pros- 
pects of  the  future. 


"THOU  SHALT  NOT  KILL." — Eugene  Sue  has  fur- 
nished us,  in  one  of  his  most  popular  works,  a  marvelous 
account  of  the  Thugs  of  India.  Josephus,  in  his  histori- 
cal writings,  tells  us  of  the  Sicarii,  a  band  of  professional 
assassins  who  were  upheaved  by  the  social  convulsions 
attendant  upon  the  overthrow  of  the  ill  fated  Jerusalem. 

These  statements  of  the  romancist  and  the  historian 
are  enough  to  make  the  flesh  crawl  and  the  nerves  tingle ; 
but  they  are  hardly  worse  than  the  terrible  reality  in 
some  localities  North  and  South,  in  the  bustling  marts 
of  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  in  the  vast  solitudes  of  the 
Western  wilderness. 

There  seems  to  be  a  species  of  homicidal  mania  prevail- 
ing throughout  the  country.  Blood-shedding  has  become 
a  sort  of  national  pastime.  In  a  large  minority  of  instan- 
ces, these  offenders  against  peace  and  good  order  are 
allowed  to  go  ' '  unwhipped  of  justice. "  In  a  few  cases, 
they  are  not  even  restrained  of  their  liberty,  but  are 
released  on  "straw  bail,"  and  thus  suffered  to  prey  on 
other  communities  without  let  or  hindrance.  In  some 
cases,  these  crimes  result  from  political  agitation,  but 
usually  they  proceed  from  mercenary  motives,  or  else 
from  sheer  recklessness  of  both  legal  penalties  and  moral 
obligation.  We  can  scarcely  look  into  the  columns  of 


THOU    SHALT    NOT    KILL.  183 

a  daily  paper  without  stumbling  on  some  fresh  deed  of 
horror  that  would  do  no  discredit  to  the  flush  times  of 
Arkansas  or  Texas,  when  the  revolver  and  bowie-knife 
were  a  part  of  a  man's  ordinary  wearing  apparel. 

Long  ago  Beccaria  taught  us  that  it  was  not  the  severity 
but  the  certainty  of  punishment  which  prevented  crime. 
In  truth,  the  severity  of  a  code  may  defeat  its  own  enforce- 
ment, and  thereby  embolden  evil  doers  by  the  prospect 
of  impunity. 

The  laws,  therefore,  should  be  mild,  making  proper 
allowance  for  the  infirmities  of  human  nature.  But  where 
plainly  enacted,  they  should  be  executed  with  unvary- 
ing certainty.  We  despair  of  seeing  this  result  in  the 
administration  of  the  criminal  law  in  this  country  until 
the  public  conscience  is  enlightened  and  educated  to  a 
just  appreciation  of  the  sanctity  of  human  life.  Until 
this  is  effected,  life  will  be  unsafe,  and  property  of  all 
descriptions  will  partake  of  the  same  insecurity.  It  is 
easy  to  see  that,  in  such  a  condition  of  affairs,  capital 
will  seek  investment  elsewhere,  and  the  tide  of  immi- 
gration will  be  diverted  into  other  channels. 

We  should  like  for  the  press  generally  to  ventilate 
this  subject,  and  the  pulpit,  too,  should  contribute  its 
vast  influence  in  the  same  direction,  for  only  by  such  a 
combination  of  effort  can  the  flood  of  iniquity  be  stayed, 
and  the  safety  of  life,  liberty  and  property  be  assured. 


184  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 


"THE  EARTH  TREMBLED/" 


On  the  night  of  the  3ist  of  August,  1886,  occurred! 
the  first  violent  earthquake  shock  on  the  Atlantic  coast: 
since  the  earliest  settlement  of  the  North  American 
continent.  Slight  tremors  of  very  short  duration  hadi 
been  felt  at  long  intervals  since  the  landing  at  James-- 
town. These,  however,  excited  only  a  passing  com- 
ment. But  on  the  memorable  night  referred  to  the? 
earth  movement  would  have  done  no  discredit  to  Chilii 
or  Ecuador.  Charleston,  or  possibly  Summerville,. 
twenty  miles  away,  was  the  center  of  this  seismic  con- 
vulsion. In  the  city  and  village  alike,  there  was  great 
destruction  of  property  and  serious  loss  of  life.  Through- 
out the  entire  area  covered  by  the  shock  there  was  muchi 
consternation  and  a  number  of  deaths  resulting  fromi 
fright.  These  shocks  were  continued  at  Charleston  andl 
other  localities  distant  more  than  one  hundred  miles  fromi 
the  center  for  days  and  weeks  after  the  first  disturbance. 
The  novelty  of  the  occurrence  led  to  much  newspaper 
discussion  as  to  its  cause,  and  some  valuable  additions; 
were  made  to  our  earthquake  literature. 

The  most  plausible  theory  of  its  cause  is  that  there 
was  a  seaward  slip  of  the  Piedmont  escarpment.  This; 
immense  land  slide  required  some  weeks  to  adjust  itself,, 
and  hence  the  slighter  shocks  that  prolonged  the  suspense 
and  deepened  the  anxiety  of  the  nervous,  and  of  the 


THE    EARTH    TREMBLED.  185 

superstitious.  Another  theory  propounded  in  this  con- 
temporaneous discussion  was,  that  the  disturbance  was 
produced  by  submarine  volcanic  action  off  the  South 
Atlantic  coast.  So  intimate,  indeed,  is  the  connexion 
between  volcanoes  and  earthquakes  that  one  writer  has 
defined  an  earthquake  as  "an  uncompleted  effort  to 
establish  a  volcano."  Another  of  equal  celebrity  has 
asserted  that  "the  forces  of  explosion  and  impulse  in 
both  are  identical." 

In  the  special  instance  under  consideration  both 
theories  are  embarrassed  by  the  fact  that  hardly  any 
appreciable  change  in  the  tides  was  observed  at  Charles- 
ton or  its  vicinity.  Yet  another  theory  was  suggested 
that  met  with  a  good  degree  of  popular  acceptance,  but 
was  received  with  little  favor  in  scientific  circles.  We 
refer  to  the  alleged  influence  of  the  Sun  and  Moon. 

Prof.  Milne,  of  Tokio,  Japan,  has  said  as  respects 
the  influence  of  the  Sun  and  Moon  that  the  period  of 
maximum  stress  of  these  two  bodies  is  when  they  are 
nearest  our  planet  "that  is  in  perigee  and  perihelion 
and  again  when  acting  in  conjunction  or  at  the  syzygies  " 
While  he  says  that  earthquakes  are  slightly  more  numer- 
ous at  these  periods,  yet  he  is  evidently  in  doubt  as  to 
their  exerting  any  very  considerable  power  in  producing 
them. 

Humboldt,  who  surpassed  Prof.  Milne  in  general 
intellectual  culture,  and  who  enjoyed  equal  or  greater 
facilities  for  studying  seismic  phenomena,  "regarded 
both  volcanoes  and  earthquakes  as  the  result  of  a  com- 
mon cause  "  This  conclusion  he  formulated  in  the 


1 86  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

statement  that  they  proceeded  from   ' '  the  reaction  of 
the  fiery  interior  of  the  earth  on  its  rigid  crust." 

Both  of  them  are  produced  by  the  sudden  and  violent 
expansion  of  the  vapors  which  are  generated  by  intense 
heat  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  Actual  experiment 
demonstrates  that  the  temperature  of  the  earth  increases 
in  proportion  as  we  approach  its  center.  This  explains 
the  fact  that  artesian  wells  of  the  greatest  depth  afford 
the  warmest  water,  and  it  accounts,  besides,  for  the 
various  temperatures  of  thermal  springs,  from  the  Warm 
Springs  of  Virginia  to  the  Hot  Springs  of  Arkansas. 

At  a  certain  depth  the  entire  mass  of  the  earth  is  in 
a  state  of  furious  combustion.  This,  of  necessity,  pro- 
duces explosive  gases,  which  occasion  the  subterranean 
thunder  that  precedes  and  accompanies  earthquakes,  as 
well  as  the  oscillations  which  constitute  the  earthquake 
itself.  In  some  places  these  gases  acquire  sufficient 
intensity  to  break  the  crust  of  the  earth,  and  volcanoes 
are  formed — either  constant  as  Stromboli,  or  intermit- 
tent as  Vesuvius  and  Hecla.  These  volcanoes,  as  has 
often  been  suggested,  are  so  many  safety-valves  through 
which  the  accumulated  gases  are  discharged,  and  it  is 
probable  that  but  for  their  existence  the  globe  itself 
would  be  rocked  at  short  intervals  by  such  earthquake 
spasms  as  destroyed  Lisbon  in  1755,  and  were  felt 
simultaneously  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  and  in  the 
ports  of  Nova  Scotia. 

The  movements  of  earthquakes  are  either  vertical, 
horizontal,  or  rotary.  In  a  few  instances  on  record 
these  movements  have  been  combined,  and  in  all  such 


THE    EARTH    TREMBLED.  1 87 

cases  the  destruction  of  life  and  property  has  been  fearful. 
It  is  a  singular  fact,  however,  observed  by  Humboldt 
and  other  distinguished  naturalists,  that  the  magnetic 
needle  is  rarely  affected  by  an  impending  earthquake. 
Nor  is  it  always  the  case  that  there  are  any  atmospheric 
phenomena  that  portend  the  coming  shock.  It  sometimes 
approaches  with  the  stealthy  tread  of  a  midnight  burglar, 
as  in  Asia  Minor  in  the  reign  of  Justinian,  where  thou- 
sands were  crushed  by  the  bowing  walls  of  temples, 
whither  they  had  repaired  for  Divine  worship. 

Most  usually,  however,  the  earthquake  is  attended  by 
a  hollow  subterranean  noise  that  is  sometimes  heard  at 
the  distance  of  five  hundred  miles  from  the  immediate 
scene  of  danger. 

The  fright  occasioned  by  this  noise  and  the  accom- 
panying shock,  when  first  experienced,  amounts  almost 
to  frenzy.  The  affrighted  inhabitants  flee  to  some  place 
of  supposed  safety,  and  the  midnight  air  is  filled  with 
the  prayers  and  shrieks  of  women,  intermingled  with 
the  curses  of  desperate  men,  defiant  in  their  wickedness. 
Even  the  beasts  of  the  field  and  the  fowls  of  the  air 
partake  of  the  general  alarm,  and  increase  the  confusion 
by  their  plaintive  outcries.  But  by  a  law  of  our  nature 
familiarity  with  danger  breeds  indifference,  if  not  con- 
tempt. So  that  it  comes  to  pass  that  men  carouse 
without  trepidation  in  the  vine-valleys  of  Vesuvius,  and 
gamble  without  fear  under  the  shadow  of  Cotopaxi. 
They  buy  and  sell,  and  get  gain  in  the  market-places  of 
Lima  and  Guayaquil  with  as  much  composure  as  in  Boston 
or  London.  Indeed,  there  are  portions  of  Ecuador 


1 88  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

where  a  shock  is  of  daily  occurrence,  and  the  earth- 
quake is  less  dreaded  than  a  hail-storm.  Farmers  in 
Peru  and  Chili,  we  are  told,  regard  earthquakes  as  pro- 
motive  of  fruitfulness  and  harbingers  of  plenty.  And 
yet  there  is  hardly  any  agency  so  destructive  of  human 
life  as  earthquakes.  The  bloodiest  battles  of  ancient  or 
modern  times  were  not  fatal  to  such  immense  numbers 
as  perished  in  the  earthquake  which  was  felt  in  Calabria 
nearly  two  hundred  years  ago. 

In  the  earthquake  of  November  ist,  1755,  already 
referred  to,  which  completely  destroyed  Lisbon,  no  less 
than  fifty  thousand  persons  were  hurried  into  eternity 
in  the  brief  space  of  five  minutes.  So  terrible  was  the 
calamity  that  the  British  Parliament  passed  resolutions 
of  sympathy,  and  voted  a  large  sum  for  the  relief  of  the 
sufferers. 

Many  lives  were  lost  in  other  localities,  and  we  may 
form  some  idea  of  the  wonderful  force  of  the  shocks 
when  we  state  that  they  were  distinctly  felt  throughout 
an  area  of  seven  hundred  thousand  square  miles,  or  one- 
twentieth  of  the  earth's  surface. 

It  appears,  from  information  gathered  from  all  quart- 
ers, that  earthquakes  are  not  confined  to  any  particular 
continent  or  even  region  of  the  earth.  They  are,  it  is 
true,  most  frequent  in  the  tropics,  and  the  equatorial 
district  of  South  America  is  peculiarly  subject  to  their 
visitations.  But  it  is  well  to  remember  that  the  Valley 
of  the  Mississippi  has  not  escaped  them,  and  that  only 
a  few  years  ago  New  England  experienced  a  severe  shock 
synchronous  with  an  earthquake  in  the  Pyrennies. 


THE    EARTH    TREMBLED.  189 

If  at  any  time  the  Eastern  cities  of  America  should 
be  visited  by  a  very  severe  earthquake  there  would 
be  a  much  greater  loss  of  life  and  property  than  lately 
occurred  in  Charleston.  In  such  an  event  the  magnifi- 
cent residences  on  Fifth  Avenue,  and  the  mercantile 
palaces  of  Broadway,  New  York,  would  overwhelm  the 
thousands  who  might  take  refuge  in  the  streets 

Such  a  calamity  may  be  far  distant,  and  still  our  late 
experiences  must  somewhat  disturb  our  serenity.  The 
laws  of  nature  are  uniform  and  stable,  but  a  thousand 
unseen  agencies  modify  their  action. 

LaGrange  the  eminent  Astronomer  has  shown  that 
the  most  violent  pertubations  whether  in  earth,  air  or 
ocean  do  not  seriously  affect  the  equilibrium  of  our 
planet  or  of  our  solar  system.  The  fluctuations  that 
occur  are  confined  within  narrow  limits  and  never  comu- 
lative  to  such  an  extent  as  to  imperil  the  stability  of  the 
system  itself.  And  yet  there  are  probably  latent  forces 
in  the  physical  universe  that  may  one  day  involve 
results  best  described  by  the  imagery  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures The  darkening  sun,  the  reeling  earth,  the  wan- 
ing moon  are  at  least  amongst  the  possibilities  of  the 
illimitable  future. 


PLURALITY  OF  WORLDS. — It  is  a  most  interesting 
employment  to  study  the  revolutions  in  scientific  opin- 
ion, and  to  note  the  rise  and  downfall  of  theories  in  the 
domain  of  physics  and  metaphysics,  in  the  lapse  of  even 
a  single  century.  For  thousands  of  years  the  Ptolemaic 
astronomy  was  in  the  ascendency,  and  perhaps,  but  for 


LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

the  fortunate  invention  of  the  telescope,  might  have 
still  maintained  its  foothold.  So,  likewise,  the  scholas- 
tic philosophy  intrenched  itself  in  every  University  of 
Europe,  and  only  yielded  to  the  Baconian  system  after 
a  stubborn  and  dubious  contest.  In  the  department  of 
geology  the  Wernerian  and  Huttonian  cosmogonies 
alternately  mastered  the  situation  until  a  compromise 
was  effected  by  the  genius  and  learning  of  a  later  period. 
In  the  sixteenth  century,  and  indeed  until  the  age  of 
Euler,  the  great  German  philosopher,  the  corpuscular 
theory  of  light,  as  propounded  by  Newton,  and  endorsed 
by  the  scientific  world,  was  everywhere  the  received 
doctrine. 

We  might  swell  the  catalogue  to  a  wearisome  length, 
but  we  shall  content  ourselves  with  an  additional  example. 
The  doctrine  of  a  plurality  of  worlds  was  a  half  century 
ago  regarded  as  a  verity,  which  it  were  both  impious 
and  absurd  to  question. 

Boarding-school  girls  wrote  with  much  assurance  about 
the  inhabitants  of  belted  Jupiter,  and  commencement 
orators  waxed  eloquent  as  they  descanted  upon  the 
civilization  of  the  supposed  dwellers  on  the  surface  of 
the  planet  Mars  ;  and  older  writers  and  declaimers  besides 
spoke  as  flippantly  of  the  man  in  the  moon  as  if  he  was 
their  next  door  neighbor. 

In  a  few  years  astronomers  began  to  doubt  the  truth 
of  this  theory,  and  on  further  examination  many  distin- 
guished savans  utterly  discarded  it.  It  was  ascertained 
that  Jupiter,  for  example,  with  a  density  not  greater 
than  water,  was  wholly  unsuited  for  human  occupancy 


PLURALITY    OF    WORLDS.  IQI 

— that  the  moon  was  but  little  more  than  a  vast  volcanic 
plain,  without  fruits  or  flowers,  or  springs  of  water — that 
Saturn  was  too  cold  for  any  animal  known  to  our  globe, 
except  the  walrus  or  the  Polar  bear — in  fine,  that  Mars 
alone  of  all  the  planetary  bodies  possessed  the  requisite 
conditions  for  the  support  of  human  life,  and  that  in  the 
case  of  Mars  there  was  one  slight  difficulty,  to-wit :  that 
it  probably  had  no  atmosphere.  With  such  data  as  these 
it  was  easy  for  sciolists  to  jump  to  the  opposite  extreme. 
For  a  series  of  years  it  was  fashionable  for  hangers-on 
at  scientific  associations  to  ridicule  the  notion  of  a 
plurality  of  worlds.  Men  who  could  not  calculate  an 
eclipse  sneered  at  Dick  and  Chalmers  as  the  merest  pre- 
tenders, and  confidently  asserted  that  amongst  the 
myriads  of  worlds  there  were  none  to  worship  the  All- 
Father  except  in  our  own  little  corner  of  His  boundless 
Empire.  All  other  suns  and  planets  were  either  with- 
out form  and  void,  or  else  had  not  reached  that  stage 
of  cosmical  development  which  fitted  them  for  the 
inhabitance  of  human  beings.  It  was  not  possible  that 
this  dreary  hypothesis  could  long  bear  sway  over  the 
minds  of  scientific  men.  It  was  repugnant  both  to 
reason  and  religion.  Accordingly,  it  has  been  giving 
way  for  some  years,  until  now  a  learned  writer,  in  a  late 
number  of  the  Dublin  University  Magazine,  announces 
the  gratifying  fact,  that  "the  doctrine  of  the  plurality 
of  worlds  may  be  regarded  as  the  universal  creed  of  the 
astronomer." 

Here  again  are  we  reminded  of  the  Apostolic  injunc- 


1 92  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

tion,  "  Beware  lest  any  man  spoil  you  through  philoso- 
phy and  vain  deceit." 

The  wisdom  of  the  Great  Creator  is  vindicated,  who 
has  not  fashioned  this  stupendous  array  of  worlds  merely 
to  ornament  a  winter's  night,  but  to  be  the  bright  abode 
of  sentient,  and  even  intelligent  existence. 

We,  too,  may  gather  from  it  a  lesson  of  humility, 
when  we  contemplate  the  magnitude  of  the  universe  and 
the  unnumbered  millions  of  moral  intelligencies,  many 
of  them  it  may  be  greatly  superior  to  ourselves,  who  peo- 
ple the  various  provinces  of  that  mighty  kingdom,  whose 
extent  is  infinite,  and  whose  duration  is  commensurate 
with  eternity. 


SHAKEN    OF    A    MIGHTY    WIND.  193 


SHAKEN  OF  A  MIGHTY  WIND/' 


One  of  the  earliest  and  most  vivid  of  my  personal  recol- 
lections is  of  the  grand  meteoric  shower  of  November 
I3th,  1833.  A  similar  occurrence  is  recorded  as  happen- 
ing in  Northern  Europe  near  the  close  of  the  last  century. 
But  no  metedrogical  display  has  equalled  that  of  1833, 
in  extent  and  duration  from  the  beginning  of  the  historic 
period. 

With  reference  to  the  origin  of  these  meteors  there 
have  been  divers  conjectures,  most  of  which  are  at  best 
haphazard  speculations.  A  number  of  Astronomers 
have  regarded  them  as  fragments  of  an  exploded  Planet 
smaller  in  size,  but  of  a  like  sort  with  the  hundred  and 
odd  Asteroids  that  have  been  discovered  between  the 
orbits  of  Mars  and  Jupiter.  Kepler  himself  thought 
that  a  large  Planet  was  needed  in  this  vast  interplanetary 
space  to  perfect  the  rhythm  of  the  skies,  and  the  fabled 
music  of  the  spheres.  The  subsequent  discoveries  of 
Piazzi  and  Olbers  and  their  successors  have  fully  justified 
this  opinion.  The  old  Astronomical  fancy  of  a  lost 
Pleiad  likewise  finds  its  vindication,  it  may  be  in  these 
asteroids  and  in  the  far  more  numerous  meteroids  which 
have  since  been  seen  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Whether 
they  be  as  suggested,  the  disjecta  membra  of  some  errant 
and  wrecked  orb  doomed  and  damned  for  some  earlier 


194  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

Adamic  transgression,  they  certainly  occupy  a  definite 
place  in  our  system. 

Their  periodical  recurrence  with  greater  or  lesser  bril- 
liancy in  May  and  November  and  likewise  in  August 
and  December,  establish  the  fact  that  at  these  dates 
our  earth  in  its  annual  travel  comes  in  frequent  contact 
with  a  meteoric  zone.  It  may  require  another  century 
of  investigation  with  the  aid  of  mightier  instruments 
than  that  of  the  Link  observatory  to  determine  whether 
as  is  probable,  these  Meteoric  exhibitions  result  from  a 
vast  volume  of  nebulous  matter  revolving  around  the 
sun,  and  itself  the  nursery  of  embryonic  planets. 

Whatever  our  conclusion  on  these  vexed  questions, 
it  was  certainly  not  only  the  privilege  of  a  life-time,  but 
of  a  millenium  to  be  an  eye-witness  of  such  a  stupen- 
dous and  resplendent  spectacle.  I  distinctly  remember 
being  aroused  about  4  o'clock  in  the  morning  by  the 
weird  outcries  of  the  domestic  servants.  They  seemed 
posessed  with  the  idea  that  the  day  of  judgment  was  at 
hand  and  I  readily  recall  the  efforts  of  my  father  to 
quiet  the  uproar  by  assuring  them  that  there  was  no 
cause  of  alarm. 

Of  course,  I  knew  nothing  of  its  scientific  import. 
My  impressions  were  those  of  elation  rather  than  fright. 
To  me  the  whole  scene  was  about  what  I  have  since 
conceived  of  the  Pyrotechnic  displays  of  the  Vauxhall 
Garden  or  a  full-fledged  Chinese  Feast  of  Lanterns.  A 
boy  reader  will  best  understand  the  aspect  of  things 
when  I  add  that  aside  from  the  fiz  and  the  pop  it  was 
like  a  thousand  Christmases  condensed  into  one. 


SHAKEN    OF    A    MIGHTY    WIND.  195 

Scientific  observers  have  since  told  us  that  these 
meteoroids  all  seemed  to  proceed  from  a  point  in  the 
constellation  Leo.  For  this  reason  they  have  been  since 
called  Leonids.  My  boyish  remembrance  accords  with 
this  statement  of  the  scientists.  Usually  they  issued 
singly,  but  at  times  they  had  the  appearance  of  a  stream 
of  fire.  A  few  that  I  observed  were  very  large,  one  or 
more  not  unlike  the  nucleus  of  Halley's  Comet  in  1835, 
when  it  was  receding  from  the  sun. 

They  nearly  all  seemed  falling  directly  to  the  earth 
and  it  was  a  matter  of  childish  wonderment  to  me  that 
they  did  not  cover  the  ground  as  I  had  seen  falling  snow 
flakes  do  at  other  times.  The  splendor  of  these  celes- 
tial fire-works  gradually  waned  as  the  dawn  approached 
very  much  to  my  personal  regret. 

A  great  many  stories  are  still  current  in  regard  to  the 
general  consternation  produced  by  this  marvellous  phe- 
nomenon. 

It  is  related  that  Volney  the  infidel,  was  at  one  time 
in  the  midst  of  a  terrific  storm  on  one  of  our  North- 
western Lakes.  It  was  a  strange  sight  to  see  the  author 
the  "Ruins  of  Empires"  become  suddenly  devotional 
as  he  fell  on  his  knees  and  begged  for  deliverance.  So 
on  the  night  of  November  I3th,  1833,  many  a  stalwart 
blasphemer  resorted  to  prayer  when  the  Heavens  were 
ablaze  with  what  seemed  burning  worlds  falling  earth- 
ward. 

In  some  instances  persons  were  frightened  into  con- 
vulsions, and  several  deaths  were  reported  from  different 
parts  of  the  country. 


196  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

In  my  boyhood  there  was  a  story  current  of  a  wealthly 
slaveholder  in  Western  Georgia,  who  was  besides  some- 
thing of  a  Philosopher.  He  resided  in  the  center  of  a 
large  negro  quarter  and  being  awakened  by  the  shrieks 
and  yells  of  nearly  one  hundred  slaves,  he  hurriedly 
equipped  himself  in  pants  and  slippers  and  stepped  out 
on  his  front  piazza.  He  was  soon  surrounded  with  a 
large  number  of  slaves  who  were  frantic  with  terror. 
For  a  time  he  surveyed  the  Heavens  with  a  degree  of 
painful  apprehension.  Noticing  in  the  crowd  an  old 
negro  preacher,  in  whose  piety  he  had  much  confidence, 
he  addressed  him  on  this  wise:  "  Uncle  Joe,  do  you 
watch  the  '  seven  stars '  and  '  the  ell  and  yard  '  and 
when  you  see  them  start  come  into  the  'big  house'  and 
we  will  have  a  word  of  prayer." 

Of  course  the  Pleiades  were  immovable,  nor  did  the 
empyreal  suns  that  blaze  in  the  belt  of  Orion  "  shoot 
madly  from  their  spheres."  As  a  consequence,  the 
hypothetical  "word  of  prayer"  was  unspoken.  The 
return  of  daylight  blotted  out  the  meteors  and  calmed 
the  superstitious  fears  of  master  and  slave. 

Most  Astronomers  tell  us  that  another  such  spectacle 
will  probably  never  be  witnessed  again  through  all  the 
generations  of  men.  St.  John,  who  was  a  prisoner  in 
Patmos,  says  :  "I  beheld  when  he  had  opened  the  sixth 
seal "  that  "  the  sun  became  black  as  sack-cloth  of  hair, 
and  the  moon  became  as  blood ;  And  the  stars  of  Heaven 
fell  unto  the  earth,  even  as  a  fig  tree  casteth  her  untimely 
figs  when  she  is  SHAKEN  OF  A  MIGHTY  WIND." 


SOME    WONDERS    OF    ASTRONOMY.  1 97 


SOME  WONDERS  OF  ASTRONOMY. 

The  public  mind  has  occasionally  been  much  interested 
in  discussions  and  speculations  as  to  the  philosophy  of 
eclipses  and  comets.  It  is  wonderful,  that  notwithstand- 
ing astronomy  has 'measured  the  eccentric  orbit  of  the 
one,  and  computed  with  precision  the  times  and  seasons 
of  the  other,  that  the  bare  announcement  of  either  is 
sufficient  to  perplex  and  alarm  very  many  who  would 
not  like  to  be  classed  with  the  vulgar. 

In  the  popular  creed,  an  eclipse  is  still  the  harbinger 
of  calamity,  and  a  comet  is  viewed  with  a  feeling  little 
short  of  consternation.  The  remedy  for  this  will  not 
be  found  in  the  researches  of  the  learned,  but  rather  in 
the  wider  diffusion  of  scientific  knowledge. 

A  solar  eclipse  is  caused  by  the  moon  passing  between 
the  earth. and  the  sun,  and  can  only  occur  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  moon,  for  only  at  this  period  are  these 
two  bodies  in  conjunction.  A  lunar  eclipse,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  occasioned  by  the  shadow  of  the  earth 
falling  on  the  disc  of  the  moon,  and  this  can  only  hap- 
pen when  the  moon  is  full. 

If  the  orbit  of  the  moon  exactly  coincided  with  the 
plane  of  the  ecliptic,  there  would  be  a  lunar  eclipse  at 
every  full  moon.  But  in  consequence  of  the  different 
inclinations  of  the  orbits  of  the  earth  and  moon,  the 
latter  planet  is  frequently  either  above  or  below  the 


198  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

cone  of  the  earth's  shadow,  and  there  is  no  eclipse  or 
a  partial  one. 

Solar  eclipses  are  in  any  given  locality  for  the  most 
part  partial,  while  a  few  are  annular,  (so  called  from 
annulus,  a  ring) ;  in  this  form  of  eclipse,  a  narrow  rim 
of  solar  light  is  seen  around  the  dark  body  of  the  moon. 
A  small  number  of  eclipses  are  total,  during  which  there 
is  an  obscuration  of  the  direct  light  of  the  sun,  and  a 
sort  of  "  disastrous  twilight"  invests  earth  and  sea  and 
sky.  It  may  be  well  to  remark,  however,  that  the  same 
eclipse  may  be  total  in  Australia,  partial  in  Canada,  and 
annular  in  France — the  extent  of  the  eclipse  depending 
on  the  standpoint  of  the  spectator. 

Tt  was  a  total  eclipse  which  was  observed  with  so 
much  interest  on  the  /th  of  August,  1869.  Quite  a 
number  of  scientific  commissioners  were  dispatched  to 
different  points  for  the  purpose  of  noting  and  studying 
this  striking  phenomenon.  Among  these,  was  a  party 
of  gentlemen  under  the  supervision  of  Professors  Broun 
and  Charbonnier,  of  the  University  of  Georgia,  who 
repaired  to  Bristol,  Tennessee,  only  a  few  miles  distant 
from  the  line  of  total  obscuration.  From  the  carefully 
prepared  report  of  Professor  Broun  we  extract  the  fol- 
lowing admirable  description  of  the  eclipse : 

' '  Two  observers  were  directed  to  watch  the  effect  of 
the  diminution  of  light  on  terrestrial  objects  ;  also  to 
note  the  stars  and  planets  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  and 
to  observe  what  kind  of  type  could  be  read,  and  to  note 
the  action  of  animals,  etc.  Professor  Charbonnier  and 
myself  directed  our  attention  to  the  sun  with  the  tele- 


SOME    WONDERS    OF    ASTRONOMY.  199 

scopes.  Each  had  an  assistant  to  mark  time.  Just  at 
the  calculated  time,  though  no  evidence  whatever  of  the 
position  of  the  moon  could  be  previously  seen,  I  observed 
a  slight  tremulous  motion  on  the  western  limb,  I28d. 
i6m.  from  the  vertex,  immediately  at  the  point  where 
it  was  known  by  calculation,  the  first  point  of  contact 
would  occur.  In  a  few  moments  it  became  visible  to 
the  crowd  assembled  around.  The  dark  spots  of  the 
sun  were  carefully  observed,  and  the  time  of  first  con- 
tact and  total  immersion  of  the  most  important  of  them 
noted.  No  change  whatever  was  observed  either  in  the 
penumbra  or  umbra  of  any  of  the  spots  during  the 
approach  or  recession  of  the  moon.  As  the  moon 
gradually  covered  the  sun  from  view,  its  outline  was 
projected  back  on  the  disc  of  the  sun — not  in  a  regular 
well  defined  curved,  but  in  quite  a  roughened,  serrated 
outline,  indicative  of  its  mountains  and  valleys. 

Just  before  total  obscuration  occurred,  the  crescent  of 
the  sun  gradually  and  rapidly  faded  to  a  delicate  thread 
of  silver  light.  My  attention  was  concentrated  on  this 
line  of  fading  light,  to  detect,  if  possible,  what  astrono- 
mers designate  as  Bailey  s  beads ;  that  is,  the  sudden 
breaking  up  of  this  thread  of  light  into  a  number  of 
segments,  or  distinct  points  of  light,  like  disjointed 
silver  beads.  I  detected  no  indication  whatever  of  such 
separate  points  of  light.  The  extinction  of  this  thread 
of  light  was  sudden  and  instantaneous.  I  am  inclined 
to  the  opinion  that  one  would  anticipate  naturally,  from 
the  serrated  character  of  the  moon's  disc  projected  on  the 
sun  that  such  would  be  the  case,  and  with  his  mind  thus 


2OO  LECTURES    AND     ESSAYS. 

prepared  to  observe  such  an  effect,  it  would  not  be  diffi- 
cult to  mistake  the  optical  effect  produced  by  refraction 
of  light  through  different  media,  for  separate  points  or 
beads. 

On  the  eve  of  total  obscuration,  directions  were  given 
to  the  crowd  to  be  silent  so  as  to  hear  the  beats  of  the 
chronometer.  The  instant  the  silver  line  of  light  dis- 
appeared a  universal  exclamation  of  amazement  and 
wonder  burst  from  the  crowd  at  the  superb  spectacle  of 
beauty  immediately  revealed.  The  disc  of  the  moon 
projected  on  the  sky  of  livid  hue  was  plainly  seen  of  a 
dark,  grayish  color,  caused  by  the  reflected  earth-light, 
surrounded  by  a  bright  halo  of  gradually  fading  silver- 
light,  extending  through  a  breadth  of  at  least  half  the 
sun's  diameter.  Through  the  bright  halo  of  light  there 
radiated  off  from  the  sun  great  mountain  peaks  of  rose- 
ate light  of  exquisite  beauty.  One  of  the  largest  was 
plainly  discernible  with  the  naked  eye  and  pointed 
towards  the  horizon.  Its  base  resting  on  the  disc  of  the 
moon  was  of  extreme  brilliance,  like  a  living  coal  of  fire 
while  its  mass  appeared  radiating  off  from  the  sun  as  a 
gushing  fountain  of  rose-colored  light,  shading  off  in 
intensity  towards  its  apex  in  delicate  violet  hues.  The 
wonderful  beauty  of  this  "solar  cloud,"  which  sub- 
tended an  angle  of  more  than  three  minutes,  and  conse- 
quently was  nearly  a  hundred  thousand  miles  in  height 
—-was  so  great  that  when  I  directed  the  large  equatorial 
towards  it,  it  riveted  my  attention  for  a  full  half  minute, 
and  hence  I  failed  to  do  all  I  had  marked  out  in  the 
critical  two  minutes  and  a  half.  At  the  time  of  total 


SOME    WONDERS    OF    ASTRONOMY.  2OI 

obscuration,  Mercury,  Venus  and  Arcturus  were  plainly 
discernible  with  the  naked  eye 

In  the  total  eclipse  of  1868,  one  of  these  rose-colored 
protuberances  was  observed  with  an  apparent  altitude 
of  80,000  miles.  These  protuberances  were  formerly 
supposed  to  be  similar  in  character  to  our  terrestrial 
clouds;  but  Dr.  Jannsen,  the  chief  of  the  French  expe- 
dition, sent  to  the  East  to  observe  the  total  eclipse  of 
August,  1868,  examined  their  light  with  the  spectro- 
scope, and  found  them  to  be  masses  of  incandescent 
gas,  consisting  largely  of  hydrogen  Mr.  Lockyer,  of 
England,  who  has  examined  them  with  care,  pronounces 
them  to  be  accumulations  of  a  gaseous  envelope  sur- 
rounding the  sun. 

After  the  lapse  of  two  minutes  and  thirty-three  seconds, 
suddenly  an  intensely  diamond-bright  ray  of  light  shot 
out  from  near  the  point  of  first  contact,  dazzling  in  its 
effect,  and  immediately  dissipating  the  livid  gloom  that 
overshadowed  the  earth  and  giving  cheer  to  the  affrighted 
animals  and  wondering  spectators  that  surrounded  us. 
The  thermometer  exposed  to  the  rays  of  the  sun  was 
observed  to  fall  from  g2d.  to  62d.  during  the  time  that 
elapsed  from  the  first  contact  to  the  total  obscuration. 
The  barometer  indicated  a  fall  of  only  i-2Oth  of  an  inch. 

The  observers  appointed  to  note  terrestrial  objects, 
reported  that  the  rapid  approach  of  the  dark  shadow 
over  the  western  landscape,  which  spread  out  before  us 
with  its  symmetrical  hills  and  shaded  valleys,  was  plainly 
discernible.  Its  effect  on  reaching  the  observer,  was 
described  as  almost  like  a  physical  object  striking  the 


2O2  LECTURES     AND     ESSAYS. 

body,  so  plainly  was  its  passage  marked.  In  a  few 
seconds,  (for  it  traveled  at  about  one  mile  per  second,) 
it  wrapped  in  its  mantle  of  gloom  the  high  ridge  of  the 
Alleghany  mountains,  about  fifteen  miles  distant,  which 
enclosed  the  southeast  view.  Hogs  and  cattle  feeding 
near  by,  were  observed  at  the  moment  of  total  obscura- 
tion to  start  affrighted  and  to  hurry  homeward  ;  the  whip- 
poorwills  came  out  from  their  retirement,  and  began 
their  evening  song  ;  bats  flew  around  for  some  moments, 
and  chickens  were  seen  hastening  to  their  roost. 

The  dusky,  livid  color,  that  overspread  the  face  of 
nature;  the  death-like  pallor  of  the  spectators;  the 
silver-bright  corona  around  the  dark,  grayish  body  of 
the  moon,  and  the  rose-colored  protuberances  of  gush- 
ing light,  all  contributed  to  make  it  a  scene  of  awe  and 
sublime  beauty,  producing  a  sense  of  profound  reverence 
and  deep  humility,  long  to  be  remembered  as  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  moments  of  a  life-time." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  Professor  Broun  recognized  in 
the  serrated  outlines  of  the  moon's  body,  as  projected 
on  the  sun's  disc,  the  elevations  and  depressions  which 
are  undoubtedly  so  many  lofty  mountain-ranges  and 
deep  valleys  on  the  surface  of  the  moon  He  did  not, 
however,  notice  the  bright  spots  on  the  dark  body  of 
the  moon  that  were  observed  on  several  occasions  by 
Schroeter,  Herschel,  and  other  eminent  savans,  and 
which  they  attributed  either  to  volcanic  fires  or  else  to 
openings  through  the  entire  diameter  of  the  moon, 
allowing  the  transmission  of  the  sun's  light. 

We  should  be  glad  if  we  had  space  to  present  in  this 


SOME    WONDERS    OF    ASTRONOMY.  2O3 . 

connection  the  report  of  the  celebrated  Halley  of  a  total 
eclipse  which  occurred  in  England  in  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  During  the  eclipse  at  Bristol, 
the  sky  was  clear  ;  but  in  the  eclipse  observed  by  Hal- 
ley,  the  sky  was  overcast  by  heavy  clouds.  This  cir- 
cumstance seems  to  have  greatly  heightened  the  sublimity 
of  the  spectacle.  The  obscuration  was  ten-fold  greater  ; 
and  there  was  not  only  the  ghastly,  livid  light  of  Profes- 
sor Broun's  report,  but  a  gloom  which  might  be  literally 
styled  a  "horror  of  great  darkness. ''  On  both  occa- 
sions, however,  there  was  enough  to  inspire  those  senti- 
ments of  "  profound  reverence  and  deep  humility"  to 
which  there  is  a  devout  allusion  in  the  above  extract. 

It  is  but  a  step  from  eclipses  to  another  marvel  of 
astronomy — comets.  If  the  former  have  alarmed  the 
multitude  still  more  have  the  latter  been  interpreted  as 
evidences  of  Divine  displeasure,  or  other  impending 
calamity. 

In  the  light  of  the  present  age  it  is  hardly  credible 
that  less  than  five  hundred  years  ago  a  distinguished 
Roman  Pontiff  should  have  issued  a  Papal  Bull  against 
the  comet  of  1456  In  spite  of  the  thunders  of  the 
Vatican  this  lurid  monster  went  sweeping  to  its  perihe- 
lion and  then  away  to  its  aphelion  beyond  the  uttermost 
orbit  of  Neptune. 

According  to  the  estimate  of  Lardner,  founded  on  a 
previous  calculation  of  Arago,  there  are  probably  four 
millions  of  comets  within  the  limits  of  our  system. 
Less  than  three  hundred,  however,  have  been  actually 
observed  ;  and  of  these,  only  three — Encke's,  Biela's, 


2O4  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

and  Halley's — are  well  known  to  astronomy.  They  are 
doubtless  planetary  bodies,  revolving  in  highly  elliptical 
orbits,  and  yet  of  such  extreme  tenuity  that  they  pass 
in  close  proximity  to  the  satellites  of  Jupiter  without 
sensibly  affecting  their  motions.  They  are  indeed  such 
thin  vapors,  that  the  faintest  star  is  clearly  perceived 
through  the  densest  portion  of  them.  Some  one  has 
computed  that  the  tail  of  the  comet  of  1860,  which 
stretched  through  ninety  degrees  of  the  heavens,  might 
have  been  compressed  into  a  Saratoga  trunk. 

The  most  wonderful  phenomenon  of  this  sort  was  the 
comet  of  1843.  A  portion  of  its  tail  was  first  visible  in 
the  northern  hemisphere  immediately  after  sunset.  For 
some  time  it  was  confounded  with  the  zodiacal  light ; 
but  it  was  subsequently  ascertained  to  be  a  comet  of 
immense  size,  that  passed  its  perihelion  at  a  rate  little 
less  than  the  velocity  of  light.  The  diameter  of  its 
nucleus  was  nearly  one  hundred  thousand  miles,  and  its 
tail  was  found  by  measurement  to  be  one  hundred  and 
eighty  millions  of  miles.  It  disappeared  after  about  one 
month,  and  rrom  the  eccentricity  of  its  orbit  approach- 
ing a  hyperabola,  it  can  only  return  after  thousands  of 
years. 

Various  theories  have  been  propounded  in  regard  to 
the  origin  of  comets,  and  the  uses  they  subserve  in  the 
economy  of  the  heavens  Some  have  suggested  that 
they  are  nebulous  masses  undergoing  condensation  pre- 
paratory to  forming  suns  and  planets,  and  that  thus  the 
work  of  creation  is  still  progressing  in  the  distant  provin- 
ces of  the  Divine  empire.  Others  maintain  that  they 


SOME    WONDERS    OF    ASTRONOMY.  2O5 

are  the  aliment  by  which  the  sun  is  himself  nourished 
and  replenished.  The  latter  opinion  was  held  by  Sir 
Isaac  Newton,  and  only  a  short  time  before  his  death 
he  predicted  that  his  hypothesis  would  become  an  estab- 
lished fact  before  the  lapse  of  many  years. 

The  appearance  of  a  comet  is  always  accompanied  by 
fears  that  it  will  collide  with  the  earth  at  some  point  of 
its  orbit,  and  thus  produce  great  geological  and  atmos- 
pheric changes  and  convulsions.  Whiston  had  ascribed 
the  Noachian  deluge  to  a  former  visitation  of  the  great 
comet  of  1680,  and  the  populace  seized  upon  this  state- 
ment to  torment  themselves  with  groundless  apprehen- 
sions. People  shuddered  when  they  learned  that  when 
the  comet  of  1843  crossed  the  earth's  orbit,  that  body 
was  only  fourteen  days  behind.  What  if  they  had 
encountered  in  mid-heaven  ?  The  reply  to  this  inquiry- 
was  appalling.  It  may  serve  to  allay  the  fears  of  very 
nervous  people  to  learn  that  Professor  Nichol  expresses 
the  belief  that  our  earth  did  actually  pass  through  the 
tail  of  a  comet  in  November,  1837.  At  that  time,  "the 
sky  became  red  and  inflamed  as  blood ;  corruscations 
darted  across  it — not,  as  usual,  streaming  from  one  dis- 
trict, but  shifting  constantly,  and  sweeping  the  whole 
heavens." 

Beyond  these  atmospheric  tumults,  it  is  probable  no 
appreciable  impression  would  be  made  on  our  globe  or 
its  inhabitants  by  contact  with  the  largest  comet  which 
visits  our  system. 

In  the  natural  order  of  events  we  may  expect  soon 
another  lurid  visitor  to  come  within  the  range  of  our 


206  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

telescopes.  Let  there  be  no  silly  apprehensions.  For 
the  same  mighty  hand  that  led  ancient  Israel  like  a 
flock,  even  now  guides  the  erratic  comet  in  its  "long 
travel  of  a  thousand  years." 


BLESSINGS  OF  TRAVEL." — Sir  John  Lubbock, 
Bart.,  M.  P.,  D.  C.  L.,  LL.  D.  F.  R.  S.,  once  pub- 
lished a  very  readable  essay  on  ' '  The  Blessings  of 
Travel. "  It  is  hardly  conceivable  that  a  man  who  flour- 
ished such  an  academic  tail  should  be  mistaken  about 
anything  and  yet  our  own  Emerson  has  characterized 
traveling  as  the  ' '  Fool's  Paradise. "  Very  much  depends 
on  temperament  and  habit,  as  well  as  on  the  observer's 
standpoint.  Emerson  was  only  less  a  recluse  than  his 
intimate  friend,  Henry  David  Thoreau  Both  of  these 
men  were,  in  law  parlance,  adscnptus  glebes.  Thoreau 
was  seldom  outside  of  his  township,  and  Emerson 
attempted  only  two  transatlantic  voyages — one  on  a 
visit  to  his  kindred  spirit,  Thomas  Carlyle.  A  season 
of  fellowship  with  the  sage  of  Chelsea  might  amply 
repay  the  discomfort  of  an  ocean  voyage  even  when  as 
yet  the  Inman  steamer  was  undreamed  of  by  naval  archi- 
tects. It  may  be  said  in  vindication  of  Emerson's  above 
quoted  phrase,  that  an  English  writer  once  described  a 
journey  irom  Cornhill  to  Cairo  without  ever  getting 
beyond  the  sound  of  Bow-Bells.  We  ourself  have  been 
importuned  by  a  publisher  to  write  a  book  of  travel,  from 
Dan  to  Beersheba,  although  said  publisher  well  knows 
that  we  have  never  set  foot  on  the  soil  of  Holy  Land. 
Why  might  not  such  a  literary  feat  be  accomplished  as 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF    TRAVEL.    '  2O/ 

well  as  are  historical  account  of  a  great  battle,  say  Water- 
loo, which  the  describer  confessedly  had  never  witnessed. 
Indeed  we  have  so  many  books  of  travel  that  an  ordi- 
nary reader  is  as  familiar  with  the  geography  of  Palestine 
as  if  he  had  climbed  Lebanon  on  the  back  of  an  ass  or 
traversed  the  land  from  end  to  end  on  the  hump  of  a 
dromedary.  In  this  way  he  has  all  the  advantages  of 
such  an  itinerary  without  its  expense  and  annoyance  in 
the  shape  of  dishonest  Sheiks  and  treacherous  guides. 
Like  all  things  of  an  earthly  sort,  foreign  travel  has 
its  blessings  and  its  drawbacks.  For  the  tired  brain  and 
the  tortured  nerves  there  is  solace  and  refreshment  in 
the  varied  scenes  of  land  and  sea.  There  is  inspiration 
besides,  in  wandering  amid  the  ruins  of  the  Coliseum 
or  in  strolling  leisurely  through  the  galleries  of  the 
Louvre.  We  question,  however,  if  the  educative  value 
of  travel  is  no  overrated.  Mere  sight-seeing,  at  home 
or  abroad,  is  an  intellectual  pastime  that  adds  nothing 
to  our  meutal  resources.  Nor  is  it  yet  demonstrated 
that  the  enlargement  of  horizon  which  is  said  to  follow 
from  foreign  travel  is  anything  but  a  sentimental  con- 
ceit. People  of  cosmopolitan  tastes  fill  no  large  space 
in  the  world's  history.  Marco  Polo  despite  his  lifelong 
wanderings  is  not  reckoned  amongst  the  "  few  immortal 
names."  Simeon  Stylites,  who  perched  upon  a  single 
pillar  for  thirty  years  was  probably  a  wiser  man  than 
"  Walking  Stewart"  who  traveled  a  continent  without 
the  help  of  steam  or  sail.  In  our  experience,  travelled 
celebrities  are  usually  inflated  and  turn  up  their  snouts 
at  home  scenes  and  everyday  people.  We  have  known 


2O8  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

several  divines  who  could  not  preach  a  sermon  without 
occasional  reference  to  what  they  heard  at  Naples  or 
saw  at  Jerusalem,  or  smelt  at  Shanghai.  One  of  these, 
from  frequent  allusions  to  what  he  saw  in  the  Holy  City, 
was  nicknamed  "  Old  Jerusalem."  A  father  whose  son 
had  spent  three  years  at  European  Universities,  asked 
me  if  he  ought  to  remain  longer.  I  advised  him  to  call 
him  home  by  the  first  steamer,  remarking  that  another 
year  would  disqualify  him  for  American  life.  We 
re-affirm  in  a  single  sentence,  what  he  have  endeavored 
to  express  in  a  dozen  or  more  paragraphs,  that  the  chief 
benefit  to  accrue  from  foreign  travel  is  physical  and 
mental  recreation — beyond  this  the  game  is  hardly 
worth  the  candle. 


WHO    IS    MY    NEIGHBOR.  2Op 


WHO  is  MY  NEIGHBOR? 


A    LAY    SERMON. 

The  antagonism  of  races  is  seldom  so  fierce  as  the 
opposition  of  religious  sects. 

Some  of  the  bloodiest  wars  which  have  devastated 
the  earth  have  been  prompted  by  religious  partisanship, 
and  have  been  waged  with  a  fanaticism  as  cruel  as  death 
and  as  remorseless  as  the  grave 

Indeed,  the  hereditary  feud  between  Saxon  and  Celt 
was  neither  so  bitter  nor  so  implacable  as  the  ancient 
rivalry  between  Jew  and  Samaritan.  Gerizim  was  set 
against  Zion,  and  the  temple  of  Manasseh  against  the 
temple  of  Solomon.  To  hate  the  Samaritan  worship 
and  to  denounce  the  Samaritan  himself  as  a  Cuthite  was 
a  part  of  the  Jew's  religion  ;  and,  as  might  be  supposed, 
this  scorn  and  execration  was  rapid  with  compound 
interest.  To  such  an  extreme  did  this  mutual  hatred 
grow  that  St.  John  tells  us,  in  the  fourth  gospel,  they 
had  no  dealings  with  each  other.  Any  interchange, 
even  of  the  common  courtesies  of  life,  was  strictly  for- 
bidden. 

In  nothing  was  the  superiority  of  Christ  as  a  religious 
teacher  more  manifest  than  in  his  rising  above  these 
narrow  prejudices  of  caste  and  creed.  Although  accord- 
ing to  the  flesh  he  was  of  the  seed  of  Israel  and  was  in 


2IO  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

hearty  sympathy  with  Judaism,  yet  he  not  only  preached 
to  the  Samaritans,  but  on  one  occasion  sharply  rebuked 
John  and  James,  the  "sons  of  thunder, "  who  wished  to 
call  down  fire  from  Heaven  to  consume  certain  villages 
of  the  Samaritans. 

And  so,  when  a  certain  lawyer  sought  to  perplex 
him  with  the  question,  Who  is  my  neighbor?  he 
astounded  the  multitude  about  him  by  uttering  the 
beautiful  parable  of  the  GOOD  SAMARITAN. 

He  describes  a  Jewish  traveler  going  down  the  rocky 
gorge  which  leads  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho.  It  was, 
says  Farrar,  "an  ill-omened  way,"  and  was  then,  as 
now,  infested  by  marauding  banditti.  In  the  course  of 
his  journey  he  was  assaulted,  stripped  of  his  raiment, 
shamefully  beaten  and  left  mangled  and  half  dead.  In 
a  little  while,  continues  the  parable,  a  priest,  who  had 
probably  been  to  Jerusalem  to  minister  in  his  course,  came 
that  way,  and  seeing  the  wounded  man,  without  offer- 
ing an  encouraging  word  or  helping  hand,  passed  by  on 
the  other  side.  Almost  in  the  same  hour  a  Levite,  who 
was  fresh  from  the  services  of  the  temple,  came  and 
looked  on  him,  and  having  satisfied  a  prurient  curiosity, 
he  also  passed  by,  leaving  the  poor  sufferer  to  his  fate. 
By  chance,  or  what  is  a  better  rendering,  by  coincidence, 
a  Samaritan  on  his  journey  saw  him  and  had  compassion 
on  him,  pouring  oil  and  wine  into  his  gaping  wounds  to 
soothe  and  heal  them,  and  chen,  dismounting,  placed  him 
upon  his  beast  and  carried  him  to  a  neighboring  inn, 
where  he  spent  the  night  in  nursing  him.  On  the  mor- 
row, he  gave  the  host  two  pence,  with  instructions  to 


WHO    IS    MY    NEIGHBOR.  211 

provide  for  him  still  further,  and  then  resumed  his  jour- 
ney. "Now,"  inquired  our  Saviour,  "which  of  the 
three  was  neighbor  to  him  that  fell  amongst  the  thieves?" 
The  lawyer  was  constrained  to  reply,  "  He  that  showed 
him  kindness."  Then  added  the  great  teacher,  "Go 

THOU  AND  DO  LIKEWISE." 

Some  of  the  fathers,  and  not  a  few  of  the  modern 
expositors,  regard  the  parable  as  furnishing  an  outline 
of  the  history  of  redemption.  They  spiritualize  every 
feature  of  it,  making  the  inn  to  represent  the  church, 
and  the  two  pence  the  sacraments,  or,  as  some  interpret, 
the  two  covenants.  While  the  parable  admits  of  a 
general  application  to  the  the  work  of  salvation  through 
Christ,  yet  much  that  has  been  written  in  this  direction 
is  but  solemn  trifling.  Such  an  exegesis  as  that  of 
Trench  and  others  places  in  the  background,  if  it  does 
riot  leave  entirely  out  of  view,  the  main  purpose  of  our 
Saviour,  which  was  to  inculcate  a  philanthropy  as  broad 
as  the  brotherhood  of  man,  unrestricted  by  clime  or 
condition. 

Every  fellow-man  who  is  in  distress  is  my  neighbor 
so  far  as  to  entitle  him  to  my  helpful  sympathy.  Phi- 
lanthropy is  not  regulated  by  degrees  of  latitude  or 
longitude,  nor  is  it  circumscribed  by  the  partition  walls 
of  partyism,  political  or  ecclesiastical.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  marked  difference  between  mere  sentiment  and 
genuine  sensibility.  The  former  is  an  effervescence  of 
emotion  ;  the  latter  is  a  deep-flowing  current  of  feeling 
that  results  in  something  practical. 

Sterne  could  moralize  most  beautifully  over  a  caged 


212  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

starling,  or  the  carcass  of  a  dead  ass,  and  yet  was  a 
heartless  domestic  tyrant.  Even  in  the  days  of  the 
Empire,  when  noble  captives  were  butchered  to  make 
a  holiday,  a  Roman  audience  would  rise  and  applaud 
rapturously  and  roundly  that  immortal  line  of  Terence  : 

"  Homo  sum  et  humani  a  me  nil  alienum  puto" 

At  the  present  time,  also,  we  find  scores  who  weep  at 
the  mock  distresses  of  Desdemona  or  the  simulated  sor- 
rows of  Lear,  who  never  once  performed  a  disinterested 
action.  Some  of  these  are  not  unlike  the  priest  of  the 
parable.  They  avoid  a  close  contact  with  poverty,  dis- 
ease and  misery.  If  by  accident  brought  into  unpleas- 
ant proximity  to  some  wounded  wayfarer,  they  leave 
him  weltering  in  his  blood,  and  pass  on  to  the  house  of 
mirth  or  the  hall  of  feasting. 

There  is  another  class  of  these  sickly  sentimentalists 
who,  like  the  Levite,  go  to  the  house  of  mourning,  and 
when  there,  are  by  no  means  sparing  of  kindly  words, 
but  who  never  touch,  even  with  a  finger,  the  burden 
which  is  pressing  the  very  life  out  of  the  sufferer. 

' 'Be  ye  warmed  and  filled"  is  the  extent  of  their 
brotherly  kindness. 

But  there  is  also  a  class  of  whom  the  Good  Samaritan 
is  a  just  type.  Men  and  women  ''who  feel  another's 
woe  "  not  in  seeming,  but  in  reality — whose  hearts  and 
hands  are  open  as  day  to  melting  charity.  Man,  although 
depraved,  is  not  utterly  devilish.  In  well-nigh  every 
human  breast  there  is  a  sealed  fountain  of  noble  sym- 
pathies and  genial  impulses.  Let  but  the  rock  of  selfish- 


WHO  is  MY  NEIGHBOR.  213 

ness  be  rightly  smitten,  and  it  sends  forth  streams  of 
blessing  in  every  direction.  This  virtue,  so  vividly  illus- 
trated in  the  conduct  of  the  Samaritan,  is  essentially  a 
Christian  virtue.  Paganism  could  boast  of  no  hospitals 
for  the  maimed  and  diseased — no  asylums  for  the  aged 
and  infirm.  Deformity  and  disease  were  reckoned  marks 
of  Divine  displeasure.  The  countrymen  of  Leonidas 
cast  helpless  children  to  the  wolves  and  bears  of  Tay- 
getus,  and  the  compatriots  of  Aristides  exposed  their 
infirm  grandsires  to  certain  death  on  the  island  of 
Eubea 

Christianity  has  reformed  this  altogether,  and  has 
made  the  visitation  of  the  sick,  the  care  of  the  helpless 
and  the  supply  of  the  needy  more  acceptable  to  God 
than  slaughtered  hecatombs.  Not  only  can  it  point  to 
Howard  and  Obelin,  who  inaugurated  grand  enterprises 
of  chanty,  but  it  has  its  thousands  of  quiet  workers  in 
every  department  of  benevolent  effort. 

Nor  is  the  end  yet  The  leaven  of  Divine  truth  is 
gradually  permeating  the  mass  of  humanity,  and  the 
time  will  be  when  ' '  wars  shall  cease  to  the  end  of  the 
earth. "  Then  shall  commerce  bind  the  nations  together 
with  cords  of  love ;  and  then  religion,  too,  shall  shed 
its  selectest  influences  on  every  kindred,  and  tongue  and 
people. 

We  can  conceive  of  no  better  enforcement  of  the 
Saviour's  teachings  than  that  sweet,  poetical  legend  of 
Leigh  Hunt : 

"  Abou  Ben  Adhem  (may  his  tribe  increase) 
Awoke  one  night  from  a  deep  dream  of  peace, 


214  LECTURES    AND    ESSAYS. 

And  saw  within  the  moonlight  in  the  room — 

Making  it  rich  and  like  a  lily  in  bloom — 

An  angel  writing  in  a  book  of  gold. 

Exceeding  peace  had  made  Ben  Adhem  bold, 

And  to  the  presence  in  the  room  he  said, 

'  What  writest  thou  ?'     The  vision  raised  its  head, 

And  with  a  look  made  all  of  sweet  accord, 

Answered,  'The  names  of  those  who  love  the  Lord.' 

'And  is  mine  one?'  said  Abou.      '  Nay,  not  so,' 

Replied  the  angel.      Abou  spoke  more  low, 

But  cheerily  still,  and  said,    '  I  pray  thee  then 

Write  me  as  one  that  loves  his  fellow-men.' 

The  angel  wrote  and  vanished.     The  next  night 

It  came  again  with  a  great  wakening  light, 

And  the  names  of  those  whom  love  of  God  had  blest ; 

And  lo!   Ben  Adhem's  name  led  all  the  rest." 


YB  '13854 


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